The Minority Report Revisited: Standing with Asian-Owned Businesses Amidst Rising Hate

“I get the worst compliments all the time. ‘Oh you’re Asian? I love orange chicken.” — Jo Koy

Five years ago, the release and subsequent success of the movie Crazy Rich Asians marked what seemed like a new chapter for the Asian American community. As the highest-grossing romantic comedy in a decade and the sixth highest ever, it appeared to signal greater recognition for Asians not just in Hollywood, but in society at large.

This sentiment was further underscored when the movie Everything Everywhere All At Once took home nearly every Oscar it was nominated for this year. Many viewed this as another critical turning point, one that could herald equal opportunities for Asian Americans and foster a more Asian-inclusive American culture.

However, recent events tell a different story. The Allen Mall shooting in Texas, the anti-Asian slur from Georgia lineman Jamaal Jarrett, and even bipartisan efforts to ban TikTok underscore a reality that contrasts with these strides.

The surge in anti-Asian sentiment, fanned by the COVID-19 pandemic and certain political figures who referred to the virus as the “China virus” or “Kung Flu,” has both unmasked and intensified anti-Asian xenophobia and racism. Yet, these issues are not new. Asian Americans have grappled with this reality for generations, as anti-Asian sentiment has long been entrenched in American history. To fully understand this, we can look back to several historical events:

• The Chinese Massacre of 1871 saw a mob of white and Hispanic residents violently attack the Chinese community in Los Angeles, resulting in the death of nineteen Chinese immigrants and the displacement of the entire Chinese population.
• The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States, effectively suspended Chinese immigration for a decade, signaling the start of an intense anti-Chinese period.
• The internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, led to the incarceration of over 120,000 Japanese Americans under Executive Order 9066. The majority of those interned were American citizens, many of them children.