FEATURE: PiA ALUMNI MAKING A DIFFERENCE

One of the biggest differences in activism that Zia has observed between her time as a student at Princeton and today is the current lack of solidarity between various social groups.

“When there were so few of us at Princeton, we really saw that, not only was it a good thing to be working together, we needed to work together,” says Zia. “That has changed over the 50 years. Now with greater numbers, people may have the mistaken impression that they don’t need to work together with other communities.”

Chen also emphasizes the importance of focusing on shared history and goals to combat hate discrimination. He points to two recent events in Georgia, the 2020 murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man, and the 2021 spa shootings, as galvanizing moments for Black and Asian activists.

“Georgia, which had been the cradle of the civil rights movement, became the epicenter of racial injustice and an example of suffering for two communities of color in this country,” says Chen. “There’s that shared humanity and the need for solidarity.”

Chen encourages the AAPI community to engage in civic life, which Asian Americans have historically abstained from. In the past year, however, AAPI voters were the fastest growing demographic segment with a 47% increase in turnout.

Today, the U.S. is experiencing another wave of anti-Asian sentiment reminiscent of the ‘80s, though due to COVID-19 and economic tensions, China has replaced Japan as the perceived threat. In the past two years, more than 11,000 hate incidents have been self-reported to Stop AAPI Hate, and one in five Asian Americans experienced a hate incident in 2020 or 2021. Two to one of these victims have been female.

“What we’re seeing today, unfortunately, is very similar to when I was leading a national movement against that anti-Asian violence,” says Zia. “History doesn’t move in a straight line. There are zigzags. There are ebbs and flows, and right now is a time of a lot of flow, just like it was in the 1960s and ‘70s.”

Most recently, Zia has been working on the Vincent Chin Legacy Guide, a 64-page historical and educational tool covering the effects of Chin’s murder on civil rights up until present day. The guide is currently available online and in print and is set to be translated into a variety of Asian languages to better reach immigrant populations.

One of Zia’s hopes for this guide is that it will help to dispel false narratives, such as the one that most perpetrators of anti-Asian hate crimes have been Black (while these incidents have occurred, studies show that most perpetrators have been white men). The guide also talks about how the model minority stereotype, a term created in 1966 by a white sociologist, has served as a counterpoint to other people of color in order to divide groups and prevent them from enacting change.

“That is political power, and that is power that matters,” says Chen. “That is something that folks need to understand is important for the betterment of their lives.”

Zia uses a bell curve to demonstrate people’s attitudes towards social change during the civil rights movement. On one end were the people striving to make positive change and on the other were the people actively resisting it.

“The vast majority of people in the middle, they would rather just play their video games or lead a peaceful life,” says Zia. “What makes change is people realizing that unless they do something, their life is not going to be peaceful—they have to do something.”

That was the end that Zia fell towards.

“I felt like if there’s something we can do personally to make a difference, we should,” says Zia. “If you have it in your power to help one person have a better life, why wouldn’t you?”

PiA Fellows bridge national boundaries with the goal of promoting cross-cultural understanding and are in a unique position to foster that understanding within the U.S. too.

“It expands their [Fellows’] minds and their outlook on the basic humanity that we all have,” says Zia.

On a final note, Zia encourages us all to care enough to act, whether that be in the form of dedicating one’s life to activism, showing up to a demonstration, or just writing an email. “Why wouldn’t we try to leave the earth and human society a little better off than when we came into it?”