In the article COVID-19 Has Driven Racism and Violence Against Asian Americans: Perspectives From 12 National Polls, delves into the statistics of the #stopasianhate movement.  Instead of interviewing heads of communities or those part of the movement, the authors take another approach and use crime statistics, polls, and even healthcare statistics. The purpose of this article is to present valuable data in order to come to form solutions to fix the issue at hand, which is an increase in hate crimes against Asian people. This a more thorough dive into the data. Other articles do not discuss the percentage of Asians that witnessed other Asians Americans being blamed for the COVID-19 pandemic during the time President Trump directly blamed China for the spread of COVID-19. The authors use statistics saying that Asian Americans mental health was negatively impacted due to the pandemic and the violence against other Asian Americans. The authors wanted to present this data for scholars and for those who are in power to start making moves to make a difference in Asian American lives. It is evident that overall quality of living has decreased due to these hate crimes and the article is hoping to reach out to experts that can find a fix that would fit everyone. The authors believe that the public health threat towards Asian Americans should be addressed to help with the violence that they are also experiencing.

The overall tone of the article was a very mundane one. However, this article is informative in nature. The goal of the article is to inform the public about the health issues that Asian American’s face in response of the rampant rise of Asian hate crimes in America. The article is not designed to take a particular side of the debate but instead the academic journal presents statistics in order to bring an end to eradicating the racial, political social tensions that is so negatively impacting the Asian American community. The validity of this article is not in question. The domain TLD is .org making the source credible. It is also an article part of a peer-reviewed academic journal. The general audience is for the general public and to inform them on these alarming statistics, and as stated before in the essay the purpose of this is to get attention from those who are in power so that actions can be taken to prevent the alarming rise of Asian hate crime.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an onslaught of anti-Asian hate crimes. Everything ranging from the beating of old Asian women to the brutal killings of Asian workers in a nail salon have been happening all around the nation. During this time, the BLM movement also gained traction and received headlines on all major media outlets and newspapers. Throughout all of this, the #stopasianhate was also not reported on nearly as much as the BLM or LGBTQ movements, merely because it was perceived as anti-black as well, because many of these anti-Asian hate crimes were committed by people of the African American community. Many Asian advocates have come out to call out the mainstream media and the BLM movement on their hypocrisy. News outlets and movements all have their own political agenda and how they want to advance it. As important of a movement BLM is, it was critical in moving the left-wing political agenda, however, while the #stopasianhate and BLM movement are similar in many ways, the #stopasianhate does not meet the criteria to be a part of the left-wing agenda, therefore leading to it not gaining much media attention. The BLM movement calls for the defunding of police and the #stopasianhate wants for stricter policing and Asian communities rely on police to prevent hate crimes. This leads to a divide in the two similar, yet very different movements.

The arguments mentioned by Kellen Browning and Brian Chen discuss a controversial topic in America due to modern American history. The BLM movement participated in many peaceful and non-peaceful protests in order to get their message across the whole nation during the pandemic. Many strides have been made due to these protests and the authors argue that the reason that the people of the #stopasianhate movement and the BLM movement cannot ally because of one crucial viewpoint: BLM activists believe that the police should be defunded and the #stopasianhate activists believe that stricter policing should continue to prevent such crimes. The purpose of the article is to outline the major differences between the two movements which is the position on the presence of police in their communities.

In order to unite the two communities with very similar goals and messages, the authors turned to both black and Asian leadership and their thoughts on the matter. The leadership agree that there needs to be more “humanizing” instead of “pointing fingers”. The intended audience is for both, advocates of the BLM and #stopasianhate movements. The authors also put in an example at the end of the article outlining a friendship between a man named Mr. Chan, who was requesting more C.H.P officers in Oakland and was surrounded by members of a volunteer patrol team and a City Councilman, Loren Taylor. Loren Taylor, who is black, was asked about whether he signed off on the request for more policing and said he did not but was there to denounce hatred towards Asians. This showed that through the differences between the two movements there is still common ground to be found and friendships to be made. At the end of the day, what matters the most is the is the foundations of these movements, which is to fight against the hate.

The author stance is on the side of the #stopasianhate, however, they also take the stance of the two movements eventually overcoming differences and banding together under their common pretense.  Considering the purpose of the article was to unite avid supporters of both, the BLM and #stopasianhate movements, the stance of both authors won’t be different from their purpose. I’d have to argue with the stances of both authors of the article because it is from personal experience that I would have to say that there is a noticeable fissure between the supporters of the two movements. The authors want to present the lesser-known objectives of the #stopasianhate movement and BLM and #stopasianhate have. They are also trying to show that both social justice movements deserve equal attention in the mainstream media, regardless of if it fits their agenda or not.

In the Business Insider article, it can be easy to make a connection between anti-Asian and anti-Black violence – but comparing them only creates more division, the author Katie Li talks about how the two movements should be uplifting instead of something that discourages social justice and dehumanizes the victims of those who have been affected by horrible hate crimes. Li talks about her past, about how even though she is a second-generation immigrant, son or daughter of parents who immigrated from their homelands, she feels alienated from her Chinese culture but also does not feel close to American culture. Despite this, Li still feels that it is imperative that Asian’s acknowledge the anti-Asian racism and make our voices heard, but also make our rhetoric illicit an anti-Black feeling to those who support BLM and do not know much about #stopasianhate. She claims that instead of these two movements empowering us, the people of color, it only strengthens white supremacy which will lead to continued oppression and dehumanization of both groups of people. Li is looking to target the younger generations of Asians and Blacks to reach out to the most impressionable of the two groups. This is in effort to mold the minds of young adults, which is much easier to accomplish compared to attempting to mold minds of those who were around since the start of the movement, in order to establish that these two movements are not much different from each other and should not be treated differently. Li states in her article that catchphrases such as “Asian Lives Matter” and “All Lives Matter”, while not untrue statements, they are attempts to distract the public from focus on anti-Black oppression and to a different group. Li argues that this should not be the case and that racism is not a competition and hate crimes are not something that marginalized groups collect like a trading card.

Li progressively gets firmer on her position that the goal of creating names that does a good job of getting the message forward but also does not co-opt a movement that is not theirs’s. However, this is presented as a surface level solution and other solutions like uplifting voices of Asian Americans instead of placing blame on the BLM movement for occupying so much of the attention on mainstream media. The author’s stance seems to be trying to help the #stopasianhate movement but, she is also trying to address that it is not the fault of the BLM movement that the #stopasianhate movement does not get as much media attention as BLM. This is a different stance to that of other #stopasianhate advocates mainly because in the eyes of the supporters, it seems like all the attention was stolen due to a political agenda; BLM fits that agenda and the #stopasianhate movement does not, which therefore causes less media attention. The author has a firm stance however throughout the article and wants for the Asian community to find other alternatives to promote the movement without having to “degrade” or “dehumanize” BLM and other movements that do not fit their parameters.

In the 10WBNS article, BLM, Stop Asian Hate movements helping other oppressed communities, takes the stance that both the BLM and #stopasianhate movements are helping other oppressed communities. The author uses quotes from prominent members of the BLM movement and prominent members of other camps like the Muslim community. However, not a single #stopasianhate activist was quoted. This shows a clear disregard for the #stopasianhate movement because of their lack of characteristics that the mainstream media deem worthy to report on. The other articles come from prominent news outlets, and they also did not interview members of these movements to the lengths that members of the BLM or LGBTQ movements were, because the #stopasianhate movement goal is to get police more funding. Instead of this article giving both movements equal exposure, the article talks of one incident of the #stopasianhate movement and casts it aside for the movement that fits the agenda. The tone of this article is an emphatic call to action. The author is however on the stance that every movement and community can draw inspiration from what the BLM and #stopasianhate movement has done to unite their communities and to make strides in social reforms. The author interviews Imran Malik, a man of the Noor Islamic Cultural Center, who says that every community can benefit from the momentum of the movements from BLM. The audience for this article was all the rest of the communities that have been oppressed in order to call them to use the momentum of the BLM and #stopasianhate movements to better their standings and the rights. The author uses assertive language to get the message across more effectively and uses the words of prominent members to strengthen his claim.

In conclusion, the #stopasianhate movement although a small movement, has its merits and deserves to garner the same attention as the BLM and LGTBQ movements. There are countless statistics that point to the oppression of the Asian American community perpetrated by deep rooted racism stemming from American culture. This is a serious issue that deserves a deeper review. However different the goals of the #stopasianhate movement and the BLM movement have, which is the defunding and increasing funding of police, there is still the possibility of common ground to be found. Both groups can unite behind a common cause that everyone matters without the cost of people’s lives and social rights.