PLATFORM : No Winners

Monona Yin is co-chairman of the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence, which is working to resolve a boycott of two Korean grocers by African-Americans in Brooklyn, New York. She told The Times:

I am depressed about the idea of coming out of this dispute “a winner.” Two store owners--two individuals--have been asked to help make up for the social problems of an entire country. If the pickets stop, we, as Asians, don’t win anything. Even though the store owners may be allowed to keep their businesses, America still will have the system of racial discrimination which affects all people of color.

Unfortunately the white-run media has been cheerleading during all this. There has been this strong tendency to report only on the ethnic slurs and the most inflammatory statements, so sides have been drawn. Asian and African-Americans have been pitted against each other, and now there is considerable talk in the media about exposing the racism that African-Americans are capable of. The message seems to be, “Look at what this boycott says about blacks; blacks can be racist, too.”

You can see leaders on both sides trying to control the buckshot racism that gets aired--the kind that is striking everyone.

The media coverage has made it hard to untangle the real issues from the inflammatory comments.

If Asian-Americans are to come out of this with any kind of gain, we have to take up the issue of economic justice in this country and begin challenging some of the institutionalized problems that are affecting African-American communities--practices like bank redlining, which systematically exclude, business owners in particular areas from receiving loans.