After three racist taunts in an hour at the New Orleans National Airport CNN correspondent Amara Walker, whose craft it is to tell others’ stories, told her own.
She was accosted in unrelated taunts because she is Asian American. She concluded a string of tweets with this one:
Amara Walker’s concluding tweet.
“I hate to have to say this.
But I belong. We Asian Americans belong. I was born & raised in the U.S. I am as American as apple pie & I am as American as Korean barbecue. I am American. Please don’t question me about that fact. Ever.”
CNN put its correspondent on the air to talk about the incidents, which reflect a recent rise in anti-Asian taunts and conspiracies.
The Anti-Defamation League reported a couple weeks before Walker’s experience that “After President Trump announced his COVID-19 diagnosis, there was a surge of anti-Asian American and conspiracy theory content, often delving into antisemitism.”
According to the ADL, “the spread of xenophobic, racist or antisemitic conspiracy theories creates a dangerous political environment that could potentially result in harassment, discrimination, and even violence against targeted groups.”
Walker’s report on her own experience was meant to reflect what is happening to people what do not have the platform she has to describe what is going on. The ADL’s earlier report tried to illustrate that what happens to one group of people can happen to others.
“100 Questions and Answers About East Asian Cultures” is available from Amazon or the Front Edge Publishing bookstore.
