Anti-Asian hate crimes on the rise in the U.S.: Why, and how can workers fight them?

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Rosa Nanasi Haas Socialist Alternative (ISA USA)

In a shooting incident in Atlanta on March 16, eight people were shot, six of the victims were Asian women. Yet many news outlets refused to call the shooting a hate crime. A police officer who arrived at the scene said the killer's motive was not based on "race" but "sex". However, the suspect, Robert Aaron Long​​​​​​​, was apparently driven by deeply ingrained sexist and racist ideologies at the same time.

The case comes amid a surge in violence and hate crimes against Asian Americans in the United States. The Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism found that anti-Asian hate crimes increased from 49 in 2019 to 122 in 2020, a 149 percent increase. The Atlanta shooting, in turn, brought more anti-Asian violence — an Asian American woman was attacked by two men in downtown San Francisco late in March.

In response to the recent anti-Asian violence and subsequent protests, Biden signed a bill on May 20, but only through data collection to "get a fuller picture" of hate crimes. But the definition of hate crime is still too narrow, and hate crime cases are still underreported, so Biden's massive collection of hate crime technocratic means and his bill are completely insufficient to prevent hate crimes from happening. We have to go back to the present The root cause of the surge in anti-Asian hate crimes is to understand the causes and solutions of anti-Asian hate crimes.

Growing hatred of China rooted in Sino-US imperialist conflict

Chinese hatred has a long history in the United States, and today it is spreading rapidly due to the conflict between China and the United States. The overarching goal of today's American ruling class is to weaken rising Chinese state capitalism and reassert the dominance of American imperialism on a global scale; Biden has been adhering to this principle in formulating his policies. The infrastructure spending provided by his latest infrastructure bill, while a drop in the bucket, is intended to "put the United States ahead of China in the competition."

From Obama's "return to Asia" to Trump's "Kung Fu Flu" to Biden's plan to win over China, the US ruling class is escalating its imperialist conflict with China. In order to gain public support for the ever-increasing economic war and arms race against China, the US government and media are carrying out intensive negative propaganda against China. Trump has used racist and chauvinistic issues to distract from the catastrophe of America's poor response to the coronavirus pandemic -- while also fueling hatred of Asian Americans.

Biden appears to be somewhat restrained, but he still preaches nationalism openly and vehemently. He continued to maintain Trump's tariffs on China and reiterated Trump's "Wuhan laboratory origin" conspiracy theory about the new coronavirus; of course, while inciting anti-China sentiment, he always made false statements against hate crimes. attitude. The goal of Biden's anti-China propaganda is to prepare public opinion for an escalation of conflict against China. Similarly, in preparing for the Iraq war, politicians and the media, including Democrats, worked to incite Islamophobia while turning a blind eye to anti-Muslim discrimination and violence.

Unlike Trump's gross, blatant racism, Biden has focused his foreign policy on a "democratic offensive." There are two purposes: First, because of the serious mishandling of the pandemic and the attempted coup d'etat launched by Trump on January 6, the prestige of "democracy" in the United States has been severely damaged, so Biden is trying to rebuild with the help of "democratic offensive". The "democratic" credibility of U.S. imperialism. Second, Biden is trying to gain international support by calling for resistance to the brutal Chinese totalitarian regime. But in reality, the US ruling class only cares about "democracy" in the service of US imperialism, and they don't really care about ordinary people in China and Hong Kong who are facing brutal repression. So, we need real working class solidarity between China and the US to oppose repression.

The History of Capitalism's Discrimination and Hate Crimes Against Asians

Sinophobia is not new. The United States has a long history of violence against Asians and scapegoating Asians for social problems; Sinophobia is part of that history. The U.S. ruling class divides the working class through anti-East Asian propaganda and involves workers in U.S. imperialist economic and military conflicts in East Asia. The first U.S. law to ban immigration on the basis of race and class was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which barred Chinese laborers from coming to the U.S. for ten years and disqualified Chinese workers from naturalization. The Chinese Exclusion Act claimed that Chinese workers came to the United States to steal people’s jobs in the post-Gold Rush depression—and it’s worth noting that the Biden administration’s remarks against China follow the same logic.

During World War II, Democratic President Roosevelt Jr. saw Japanese Americans as a potential "fifth column" and ordered all Japanese Americans (about 120,000 people) to be held in "internment camps" and their homes and properties sold . In this way, Japanese-Americans became victims of the American-Japanese struggle for control of the Far East.

Although Chinese immigrants, who were mainly working class in the past, formed the Asian stereotype of "coolies" in the United States, under the cruel immigration system in the United States, "coolies" no longer have the opportunity to come to the United States, and the United States hinders the working class. Immigrant naturalization, while opening doors to wealthy elites, has transformed Asian-American stereotypes into a "model minority." Since 1990, immigration law in the United States has not updated the limit on the number of immigrants, and the number of immigrants in a single country has always been limited to 7% of the total number of immigrants. U.S. employers are more willing to fill immigration quotas with highly skilled professionals such as engineers than "coolies." And as a legacy of the previous planned economy, China just happens to produce a well-educated workforce; they both sustain China's economic growth, lay the foundation for Chinese state capitalism, and provide enough professional immigration to the United States. But there are so many people with skills that in 2018, the average queue time for employment green cards reached 56 years. However, as long as you invest more than $1 million in the United States, you can skip the queue and immigrate directly. And just like that, the once working-class Asians and their histories were erased, and the spotlight shone on the middle class and wealthy Asians. These wealthy people flaunt their wealth on TV shows, creating new stereotypes of Asia's wealthy immigrants. So right-wing populists have taken advantage of this stereotype to turn anger at America’s wealthy towards Asian Americans.

The role of the working class in fighting hate crimes

In the 1980s, the ruling class tried to contain the rise of Japan's economy, blaming Japan for the decline of America's ailing auto industry, which led to a series of anti-Asian attacks, the most notorious of which was Vincent Chin​ ​​​​​​) murder. Chen Guoren was beaten to death by the manager of a Detroit auto plant and his stepson who believe he caused layoffs at their Chrysler plant.

In response to Chen Guoren's murder, the United Auto Workers threatened to strike the union if the killer continued to work at Chrysler. The manager was fired shortly after. While the UAW leadership sparked economic anxiety and racial hatred by smashing Japanese-made cars in a show a few weeks ago, they also proved that unions can use action to demand justice and fight hate crimes. Unions must reject Sinophobia, both protectionist and neoliberal free trade agreements. The U.S. ruling class wants to “override” China by squeezing workers and lower wages, while moving offshore jobs from China to Thailand, Vietnam, or other countries more easily controlled by the American elite. It’s understandable that workers want to prevent Americans from losing their jobs, but protectionism, by its very nature, serves the ruling class and ultimately hurts the working class in America and China. Only a working class united across national borders can put an end to this race-to-second effect and prevent bosses from "overtaking" each other by extracting more labor. Unions must defend the rights of Asian members and fight anti-Asian hate crimes and discrimination in the workplace.

The thugs who attacked Asians are not only whites, but also blacks. In recent weeks, there have been numerous articles accusing black people of horrific hate crimes against Asians. The articles suggested that some media had concealed the facts of black violence. This corny right-wing narrative that pits blacks against Asian sandpipers and clams ignores the class contradictions behind tensions between black and Asian communities. In the 1960s, when the U.S. shifted from quota immigration to “skilled immigration,” a wave of college-educated, middle-class Korean immigrants came to the U.S., but they couldn’t find jobs in their own banks because of discrimination and language barriers. As a result, they became small business owners in black neighborhoods where assets were cheaper. Coupled with the local poverty, the development of black small businesses was hindered. This sparked resentment on both sides, culminating in riots swept across Korean-American businesses after the acquittal of the white police officer who brutally beat Rodney King during the Los Angeles riots of the 1990s. These attacks are not without cause, they are a direct consequence of the capitalist system. Capitalism pits Asian middle-class immigrants to relentlessly compete with black businesses, brutally exploits and impoverishes the black working class, and promotes racist stereotypes - all of which capitalism uses to hide its inability to provide workers of all races with a decent standard of living reality.

Today, profit-seeking real estate developers, speculators, and high-income immigrants, mostly white, but also wealthy Chinese, have contributed to the gentrification of black neighborhoods. The U.S. demonizes Chinese people and treats anti-Asian hate crimes with indifference, making Asians the targets of attacks. But just as Chen Guoren had no responsibility for the Chrysler layoffs, the victims of today's anti-Asian attacks are not gentlemen or wealthy investors -- those who are truly responsible for the suffering of the working class are living in safety. Hate crimes are always reactionary and cannot be rationalized. Anti-Asian attacks threaten Asian workers and the elderly, while the media puts the blame on the black working class. In the face of this attempt to divide and rule workers, the working class should unite against the gentrification of communities and demand the construction of high-quality, affordable public housing for workers.

Building working-class unity is our only effective tool against racist violence. The U.S. ruling class needs to build social support in preparation for an escalating conflict with China, so we cannot lobby the ruling class against racial violence, and the technocratic tactics of upper-class Asian and Democratic politicians will be very limited. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have always revolved around American identity, using patriotism to discourage fellow Americans from attacking each other, but this excludes Asian immigrants and promotes the culprit of Sinophobia - American nationalism. The police have also been unable to effectively stem the rise in hate crimes. They allowed Alan Long to carry out a mass shooting at two massage parlors 30 miles apart, and then defended his actions; police let white supremacist vigilantes go unpunished for crimes against people of color. To deal with the rise in hate crime, we don't need to increase the police budget as some have called for, but rather community control of the police so that they can respond to criminal offenses, not tear gas to "maintain stability".

We cannot end hate crimes as long as the US and China continue to engage in economic warfare for profit, thereby demonizing entire communities. Both the United States and China will continue the conflict at the expense of working people on both sides. The escalating imperialist rivalry between the two countries is a natural consequence of global capitalism, which will continue to increase anti-Asian hate crimes in the United States. The only way to end racist and sexist violence against Asians and bring about much-needed change is to build a working-class movement of All existing oppression struggles. This requires leadership from unions, which will not tolerate any racism, and join the fight to stop violence against Asians and blacks. With the internal contradictions and weaknesses of the capitalist system exposed like never before, we need more than ever to build a socialist world created and run by workers, not manipulated by billionaires. Trade needs to replace the capitalist international trading system based on profit extraction and fierce market competition.

Socialist Alternative Requirements:

• Expand the definition of hate crime! What Hate Crime is meant to be defined by the working people and the oppressed, not the police or political parties representing big business!
• Unions should refuse to engage in the current economic war against China. Only a working class united across national borders can end the rivalry and prevent bosses from "winning" each other by extracting more labor. Unions must defend the rights of Asian members and must fight anti-Asian discrimination and hate crimes in the workplace.
• Build a mass movement across race and gender against all racism - including racial violence and sexism against Asian Americans! Unions in every country need to fight hate crimes and oppression of workers.
• Both Democrats and Republicans are loyal to the racist, sexist, and oppressive system of capitalism. Instead of trusting them to represent the people, we should build a new, business-independent, cross-racial working-class party from the struggle.
• The whole system is sinful - Malcolm X said: "You can't achieve capitalism without racism."​​​​​​​To achieve lasting change, we must bring confrontation and opposition to an international scale. The fight against Asian violence, against police racism, and against corporate political manipulation expanded to the fight against the capitalist system and toward socialism.