Daniel Dae Kim Talking About Asian United
Over the course of the last few months I’ve started and deleted posts as I view my tumblr primarily as a place where I (attempt) to escape this very real dread that I feel. At times I’ve voiced my opinions when the anxiety was too overwhelming but it seems like everyday that anxiety and the level of vitriol gets worse and worse. Going outside alone makes me scared. Being approached by strangers makes be terrified beyond the normal New Yorker wariness. Is today the day I’ll be yelled at? Spat on? Set on fire? Thrown acid on? Stabbed? Murdered? Will it happen on the subway? By city hall at 6pm, in the park, just walking down my own street? Taking out the trash?
These are real examples and only examples that have happened in New York. I hate that I’m following every report so closely like I’m mentally tracking the data for my own safety. I hate that I’m so on edge. At first only NEXTSHARK was reporting it, and you think– “am i blowing this out of proportion?” Why isn’t it covered more widely? But why should I feel that way when the proof is there? When the statistics are there? Yesterday 8 people were murdered in Atlanta and 6 of them were Asian women. The response to the murders, while unsurprisingly, is horrifically racist and sexualized because they’re ASIAN WOMEN and they worked in m*ssage parlors. The fact that I have to censor that because some gross racial fetishist is looking for these kinds of key words and not thinking about the value of their lives is reason enough to be mad. And I’ve just had enough. Even when I don’t talk about it publicly, I’m thinking about it constantly. And I know I am not alone in this…
But sometimes I don’t want to talk about it. Sometimes I just want to cry? I want to stop looking at the reports because it makes my anxiety worse.
I want to rage, to erase this crushing sense of helplessness in my lungs. To snarl instead of sobbing. I wanted to be shocked at this injustice. To be surprised and treat this as a horrific incident and not just a symptom of a bigger problem.
But I've witnessed how racist bigots reacted to Floyd, the instinctive racist response and "jokes" when people identified China as the one who was at fault with the whole COVID-situation, and how I immediately thought that those "low-key" racist thoughts will escalate someday to deadly actions. I listened to some of my friends when they said that I'm exaggerating.
And I wish- I wish I was. I wished that they were right and I was wrong. But look at our bloodied history. Look at where we are now.
One step forward, eight bloody steps back.
....stay safe.
Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens
Li BingBing 李冰冰 photographed by Chen Man 陳漫 for Cosmopolitan China, August 2017
Sunita Mani photographed by Joyce Kim for Day Space Night.
Constance Wu & Henry Golding behind the scenes of their Entertainment Weekly cover shoot
You really have to risk everything—you have to take chances and take on projects that are pretty diverse. Just because you do film, don’t limit yourself. You should also do theater because it puts you out there in a terrifying way in front of a live audience and it really tests your skills. The more flexible you are, the more the longevity of your career is going to sustain itself. That’s what actors want. We don’t want to blow up for two years or five years and then be done.
andrew kim + outfits
Karen Fukuhara attends the premiere of Warner Bros. Pictures’ ‘Justice League’ at Dolby Theatre on November 13, 2017 in Hollywood, California.
Priyanka Chopra on the set of ‘Quantico’ in NYC
L'Officiel China November 2017
Brenda Song – Kode Magazine (November 2017)
[On diversity] “I just remember growing up and not seeing anyone that looked like me in movies.”