Eva Chen, director of Instagram fashion associations, hosted a conversation on Tuesday about the rise of anti-Asian racism with Amanda Nguyen, civil rights activist and founder of Rise, Michelle Lee, editor-in-chief of Allure and Birds of Prey. director Cathy Yan.
The four leaders discussed reports of increased discrimination and violence targeting members of the Asian Pacific American community during the last year of the pandemic, which increased significantly in recent weeks and reactivated national coverage of hate incidents. Each woman also shared the anti-Asian bias she has experienced in her own industries and how they are using this moment to draw attention to long-standing anti-Asian racism.
Nguyen has worked in the civil rights space for most of a decade and helped draft the first Declaration on the Rights of Survivors of Sexual Assault. Still, he says he’s often the only Asian American person in the room where political decisions are made or in congressional halls – “even in spaces that say it’s really about diversity,” Nguyen said. “Sometimes our own existence seems to be a threat. It’s certainly what it has been like during the pandemic in this community, but it’s been a long time since the pandemic.”
In February, Nguyen posted a video on Instagram that went viral and called on the national media to better cover the rise of racism and anti-Asian violence in the United States.
Yan discussed how it was until he got critical acclaim for directing DC’s blockbuster “Birds of Prey” that a distributor would “risk” and release his first feature film, “Dead Pigs,” a dark comedy. set in China. In the film industry, he said he felt pressure to create projects that would appeal to white audiences and that Asian and Asian American stories would often be subject to the “perpetual alien” stereotype. Things are getting better, he added, noting the reaction the Golden Globe organizers faced when they limited the American film “Minari” to this year’s best foreign language image category.
The speech that followed was an encouraging sign that the public recognizes the stories of immigrants and underrepresented communities that are part of the American experience, Yan said: “Your otherness is what will continue to drive progress. of what it means to be American in that country. “
Lee added that telling diverse stories, including the experience of being Asian in America, is key to combating stereotypes and incidents of racism directed at Asians.
“In the beauty industry – and publishing in general – our responsibility and opportunity is to tell these nuanced stories,” Lee said. “Asianism exists on a wide spectrum, but a lot of times people see us through a narrow lens, and that’s really dangerous.”
As Allure’s editor-in-chief, Lee sees an opportunity to tell these nuanced stories and change what people see beautiful. At one point, Lee examined Allure’s latest catalog and found that, in the 28 years and 320 issues prior to his tenure, there were only two Asian women on the cover of the magazine. Since becoming editor-in-chief in 2015, Lee has hired a fully Asian crew for a shooting solid makeup, included three Asian models in a 2018 hair number and, over the years, featured eight Asian faces on the cover.
Lee added that Asian representation in the media and leadership is growing, but “it is still not enough” and stressed that any progress “does not happen accidentally.” Instead, he called on people with decision-making power in their organizations to prioritize inclusion and opportunities for members of marginalized communities.
For her part, Chen is known for her rapid rise in the beauty and fashion space: at age 33, she became one of the youngest editors to run an American national magazine when she became the editor. in head of Conde Nast’s Lucky magazine in 2013. But he noted that his willingness to speak took time.
“The confidence came to me quite late. I didn’t have the confidence to have my own opinion until I was 30,” said Chen, who is now 41 years old. He added that his 6-year-old daughter Ren already knew what a protest from school was. “I feel like young people are finding their voices early these days and have the power to have their opinions. It took me a long time.”
Nguyen, who has been active in empowering young Americans to talk about important civil rights issues for them, offered advice to younger generations of activists: “If there are structures that have systematically blocked the Asian community American of the Pacific, we will target other platforms like social media to democratize our voices, ”he said. “Now we have options. No one is invisible when we demand to be seen.”
The Instagram Live Rooms discussion raised more than $ 2,700 for Asian Americans advancing to justice and convened the ongoing work of groups such as Apex for Youth, the Innocence Project, Rise, Gold House and Act to Change.
Take a look at:
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