{"id":108364,"date":"2021-04-09T13:17:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-09T19:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/?p=108364"},"modified":"2021-04-09T13:17:00","modified_gmt":"2021-04-09T19:17:00","slug":"4-ways-to-help-asian-families-feel-safe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/articles\/topics\/life-issues\/challenges\/cultural-issues\/4-ways-to-help-asian-families-feel-safe\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Ways To Help Asian Families Feel Safe"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Naturally, kids love to ask questions. Some are simple, while others are existential in nature. \u201cDaddy, are we safe?\u201d is a question I never imagined I would find so difficult to answer. But with recent events, I find myself unsure of how to respond to my three young kids.<\/p>\n

We are a Chinese American family witnessing a 150% spike<\/a> in anti-Asian violence during the COVID-19 pandemic. Independent organizations have surfaced over 3,800 incidents <\/a>nationwide (and in every<\/em> state) because many states do not have a reporting structure for these types of crimes.<\/p>\n

Which makes even me wonder: Are we safe? How do I teach my kids about anti-Asian racism? And how do I keep them safe?<\/i><\/p>\n

The answer is very complex, because racial bias is in the water of which all of us swim.<\/p>\n

We can be empowered by the Holy Spirit to have wisdom on how to make a difference with grace and righteousness. Here are a few practical ways the Christian community can help Asian families feel safe:<\/p>\n

1. Empathize<\/h3>\n

When I was an adolescent growing up in Cincinnati, Ohio, I wrestled a lot between being an American or a Chinese. At 9, I declared to my mom that I was American\u2014not Chinese. I\u2019ll never forget the message she told me, \u201cNo matter how much you act like them, they will never accept you as one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a bold statement, but she spoke to a real experience in our community that we are a minority who had been mildly acceptable, yet never really white enough.<\/p>\n

How do I teach my kids that they will be seen as perpetual foreigners in the country we were born and raised in?<\/p>\n

This wrestling match was especially difficult because I didn\u2019t speak Chinese. Still, I was asked if I could say something in Chinese in front of my high school history class. I felt so much shame that I was different from the norm and began resenting my ethnicity as God made me.<\/p>\n

How do I teach my kids (especially my daughters) that people judge them to be \u201cOrientals?\u201d<\/p>\n

There was a joke on the TV show The Office<\/em> (I love this show), where the ignorant and well-meaning boss, Michael Scott, approaches new associate Karen Fillippeli. He says, \u201cWow, you are very exotic looking. Was your dad a GI?\u201d She stares off in a mix of disbelief and disgust as the most egregious part is that Karen\u2019s mother was not a Vietnamese prostitute from the war. It highlights a historic racist stereotype that Asian women are exotic, sexual objects of the western man\u2019s affection.<\/p>\n

Which makes the 2021 Atlanta shooting even more poignant. Even if the alleged shooter\u2019s motive was driven by sexual addiction and not COVID anti-Asian racism, he still murdered six Asian women he interpreted as sex workers in a massage parlor.<\/p>\n

I urge our Christian community to avoid requiring victims to justify their pain. Do not overly fixate on the motive of the murderer as opposed to the dignity and the humanity of those who lost their lives. I plead that we can say and learn the names of these victims. And together admit, no matter what they did in this life, they did not deserve MURDER.<\/p>\n

Consider Jesus in John 11. <\/a>He could have easily told a grieving Mary to stop crying because He\u2019s about to raise her brother Lazarus from the dead. Instead, He actually weeps with her, and in verse 36 the onlookers say, \u201csee how much He loved him.\u201d  Jesus\u2019 seemingly illogical tears serve a purpose to showcase how Christians ought to love.<\/p>\n

So please don\u2019t tell my parents why you think they don\u2019t need to be afraid if they walk through Chinatown; instead, weep with them.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t say the shooter wasn\u2019t a racist because he was trying to overcome a sexual addiction; instead, mourn the trauma of what the victims\u2019 deaths represent to the Asian American community.<\/p>\n

The Christian response is to comfort and be present in another\u2019s grief, not rationalize its necessity.<\/p>\n

2. Educate<\/h3>\n

Do you remember when the U.S. had concentration camps<\/a>? Actually, we used the word \u201cinternment\u201d for the incarceration of 120,000 innocent Japanese Americans by Franklin D. Roosevelt\u2019s Executive Order 9066<\/a> in 1942. But the definition of what was done matches \u201cconcentration camp<\/a>\u201d more accurately. History chose a softer word so it could hide the pragmatic discrimination against the \u201cJaps.\u201d
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How do I teach my kids that in the history of this country Asians in America have been treated as scapegoats? You might remember from high school reading about Jim Crow, but do you remember learning about \u201cYellow Peril<\/a>,\u201d The Page Act of 1875, or the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882?<\/p>\n

Neither do I.<\/p>\n

These laws halted immigration from China due to the dominant sentiment that Asians did not belong in this country, Asian women<\/i> were immoral, and their culture was an existential threat to the American way of life. These laws were not repealed until 1943.<\/p>\n

To love our Asian American neighbor, we need to see<\/i> our Asian American neighbor. We must understand their lives, loves, hurts, and the totality of their identity in Christ.<\/p>\n

First Corinthians 9:20-23 (NIV):<\/p>\n

To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God\u2019s law but am under Christ\u2019s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Paul is seeking to relate to every type of person he ministers to for the sake of the gospel. The word \u201cwin\u201d denotes a sense of gaining for oneself, in this context, relationship. Winning someone over is not simply convincing them of an agenda, it\u2019s gaining a friend by understanding their lives.<\/p>\n