Welcome to KnowThis Live, I'm Zinhle Essamuah.
Members of the AAPI community are calling for more representation after a huge
spike in hate crimes in the wake of the pandemic.
Some say the deadliest shootings in Atlanta are a tipping point for a problem
that existed long before COVID-19.
Celebrities now have used their platform to amplify these efforts,
including actor Daniel Wu. He joins me today. Thank you so much for being here.
Hi, thank you for having me.
Of course, and just jumping in.
I know you've been incredibly active in the movement to stop AAPI hate and the
group Stop AAPI Hate has tracked more than 3,800 incidents of hate crimes
in 2020 and 2021 alone for you,
what was the tipping point?
What made you say I need to mobilize speak out and say enough is enough.
I think what the tipping point for me was the incidents happening in the Bay
area. I live in Oakland, California. I grew up here in the Bay area.
This is a typically a diverse community who has got along well together and
to see the increase of these hate crimes over the past year,
I think the tipping point was seeing Vicha Ratanapakdee get killed in San
Francisco, pushed over, and then following the next couple of days,
a 90 year old one man, a 91 year old man pushed over in Oakland Chinatown.
My father is 91 years old. And so when I saw that video, I just couldn't help,
but think of him and think of my family and think of, you know,
trying to protect them.
So I think that was the last straw for me to try and stand up and try to protect
my local community.
And I know we spoke briefly before that, you know, you're, it's,
you seem to be close with your family.
How have you been coping with this and processing these many attacks,
many of which have been, as you stated against elderly Asian Americans?
It's been very difficult. I mean, to see it happening to, um,
family, friends, people that, um, I know very closely to,
they're afraid to go out in the streets, you know,
this has never happened here in the Bay Area like this before.
And so it's really shocking, you know,
you see to see it happen in such a diverse community. Um,
and so it's been difficult. It's very difficult every day,
watching these videos, seeing people, getting attacked, seeing people,
getting beat up, seeing people getting spit on,
and yelled at to go back to China. It's just really hard, especially, you know,
someone like me,
who's grown up in this country who then went away to build a film career
because, you know, being an Asian American male,
it was a very difficult path to try and do in the United States.
So I went and did that in Asia. And while I was there for 20 years,
I did not have to deal with racism at all. You know,
I was with Chinese people and, and, um,
people looked at me as a person with a skillset that was the sim-you
know, that was not based on skin color. It was based on my skills and abilities.
And that's why I was hired for a job and not to fill in a token, you know, uh,
Asian role or something like that.
And so then coming back here in 2016 was kind of a culture shock for me.
Coming back and realizing that the heart and my brain been, you know,
relaxed a little bit and I had to need to pump that up. And then during the,
when COVID started to happen and all the sort of political rhetoric from Trump,
uh, China virus, kung flu, all those kinds of things,
it was just shocking to see that our country has kind of devolved to this state.
Thank you for sharing that. And I,
and I wanted to go there outside of the realm of activism in the space of
entertainment.
I know that Hollywood has had an ongoing coming to terms with a lot of
white-centric casting and stories. Um,
and you've even said growing up a Chinese American kid in the 1970s and 1980s
in California, I saw no possibility for me to become an actor.
Can you just describe the environment in Hollywood for us as an Asian American
actor?
Well,
I think it's gotten better over the past few years that there's been great moves
in terms of diversity and trying to diversify Hollywood. And so, um,
that those have helped a lot, but you know, prior to that, for my entire youth,
there was no representation. You know, I saw Bruce Lee on screen,
but he was not necessarily Asian American. He was, he was doing Hong Kong films.
Right. And so there was no representation.
The things I saw were like 16 Candles, Long Duk Dong, you know, um,
really bad stereotypes of what an Asian male could be. And then they're all,
oftentimes emasculated. And then, um, my sisters, you know,
Asian American sisters were often, uh, hyper-sexualized, you know, and put in,
you know, those kinds of exotic roles.
And so that kind of misrepresentation has also hurt us in terms of our
representation now and the lack of representation in things like entertainment
and politics and stuff like that has led to our further,
like being invisible or being seen as,
as others as opposed to being part of the American fabric.
And I think that's part of the frustration of being an Asian American is they're
always constantly looked at as a foreigner. Um,
and I think Hollywood is making strides now,
and we're seeing Asian American film production companies starting up and seeing
movies like Minari, making strides, getting critical acclaim,
and talking about the Asian American diaspora, um,
talking about our own stories.
I think that's the only way we can move forward is to allow us to talk,
to tell our own stories, um, and,
and show that we are part of this American fabric.
And I know that effort has expanded beyond entertainment,
even in the realm of politics,
Senators Tammy Duckworth and Mazie Hirono called on the Biden administration,
um, to elevate Asian American voices within the federal government. Um,
Biden has since promised to appoint a liaison for Asian Americans within the
white house. Do you believe that effort is enough?
I think it's a start.
I think we need to work harder on getting more representation in, in politics,
in American politics, on a local level and on the federal level. Um,
because without that representation, we have no one to speak for us.
And as recently as Monday, you know,
you outlined some of the horrific attacks we've seen out of the Bay area,
even just New York this past week,
we saw an awful attack on a 65 year old woman.
How do you feel learning about this attack and what just needs to be done at
this point where it's coming time after time event, after event?
Yeah, I mean, I think, I mean,
it's really difficult because what are we supposed to do more police that's
maybe not the answer, but I think that, you know, in a lot of these cases,
I saw a lot of bystanders just standing around watching and people need to
help. I mean, in that situation with this 65-year-old woman,
there are two security guards just standing there. And then after the incident,
they just shut the door and closed the door, like, as if nothing happened.
Come on, we need to work together as people,
all people in this country need to grow it together with some humility,
some humanity and some, um, love for one another. And if we have that,
then that's a good starting point. You know, it's a very simple thing.
It's not about necessarily finding more police or strong arming
the situation, but we need to have more empathy for each other, as people,
as fellow Americans. And I think we needed to start on that foot.
And you alluded to it,
but a lot of the conversation we've been seeing has also been about solidarity
between the Black and Asian American community. Uh, and I have to ask,
given these uptake in, this uptick in hate crimes,
like is more policing the answer,
especially given what we know about over policing in the black community,
what say you?
Yeah, no, it's a, it's a, that's a difficult matter. I think, you know,
with issues of restorative justice and all of that,
we need to look at the system and figure out how to make it work properly.
I think what's happening in San Francisco is that there's concepts of
restorative justice, but the system has holes in it. There's flaws.
We're seeing people getting arrested and getting released on the same day and
then going out and doing the same crimes over and over.
In the case of Pak Ho that was recently,
he was recently shoved over and killed in Oakland Chinatown,
or in Oakland recently. He was, uh, he had an ankle bracelet on,
he was on home arrest. And so this guy, you know,
actually should have been being monitored more closely or put in, you know,
having counseling or rehabilitative programs, but, you know,
catching and releasing people does not help the situation.
We need a proper system to really think about how to take care of these troubled
individuals in our society and not just let them be because there's,
the system is broken and we need to fix it.
And we need the long-term goals and long-term systems to, uh, fix those.
And not just band-aids.
As you talk about restorative justice,
I'm reminded that so much of the solidary- solidarity and activism work has to
do with envisioning a better future.
And so I wonder for you as someone who's obviously so entrenched in the
entertainment industry, um, and have seen the, the strengths and weaknesses,
what to you is ideal representation in the future for Asian Americans and
entertainment, uh,
but also just ideal safety in the country as Asian Americans as well.
Well, yeah, I mean, I think like I was saying earlier,
I think we may need more of a representation in fields that are,
we're underrepresented in, um,
and to speak a bit more like our culture, our society,
our community has a tendency to just keep your head down and, and work hard,
right? But I'm seeing now,
and I'm actually enlightened and hopeful about this and that in these recent
events,
the light at the end of the tunnel is that our community has joined together
because the Asian American community is very, um,
complicated because there's so many different cultures and languages mixed in
there. And so we've never been united as a, as a whole community.
And finally, through these incidents, we have joined together,
we are anited and we are awake and we are ready to, to stand up for our,
what we need, what we think is our rights and what are, uh, to be protected.
And so that's a step in the right direction. But again, also to,
to encourage people to go into things like politics, go into law, go into, uh,
entertainment, um,
traditionally non-Asian jobs to have more representation, to be more visible.
And so that we can help start to mend this problem in this country.
But going back to the other issue we were talking about earlier is that we also
need to join with other people of color,
because if we are talking about this as being systemic problem, as, uh,
you know, of white supremacy of systemic racism, we people of color not,
are not needing to fight each other,
but we need to join together and work together to help fight this broken system.
Well, actor Daniel Wu,
thank you so much for your time and your insights during this difficult season.
Thank you so much for having me. Thank you for allowing me to express my views.
Of course. And thanks to everyone for watching. This has been KnowThis Live,
I'm Zinhle Essamuah.