When the pandemic broke out early last year, as a society we collectively dealt with an array of reactionary emotions. It began with fear of the unknown, evolved into frustration, before eventually materialising into anger – and where there is anger, there lies a primitive urge to place blame. Unfortunately, it became a widespread norm to blame the Asian community for the global disaster that is the coronavirus pandemic.
This is despite the fact that the virus, thought to have originated in a wet market in Wuhan, did not arise as a result of the actions of any specific people or nationality. However, as the desire to point fingers festered, so did an unjustified hatred that was unfairly directed towards members of the Asian community.
There has been a sharp increase in accounts of racially motivated attacks globally since the beginning of the pandemic. From the upsetting scenes of Dublin woman Xuedan Xiong pushed into the canal by a group of teenage boys, to the incident involving Lord Mayor Hazel Chu, in which she was racially harassed and verbally abused on the steps of her home on Dawson St.
In an effort to educate the Trinity community on this matter, Trinity Korean Society have launched a new social media campaign entitled #ProtectAsianLives. The movement quickly adopted support from a number of Trinity’s largest societies including, but not limited to, Cumman Gaelach, DU History, Trad Soc and SUAS.
Speaking with The University Times, Chair of Trinity Korean Society Matas Martinaitis and Public Relations Officer Lydia Ryan explained why they decided that now was the time to start this conversation. Martinaitis described feeling the urge that it was time to speak up after their dance teacher and his friends fell victim to a racist attack in St Stephen’s Green.
“When we saw a proper act of violence happen to somebody we know, we just had to put our foot down at that point”, he tells me.
Ryan, who is of Korean descent, says she feels as though “Asian racism in Ireland is just getting out of hand”.
Ryan explains the issues she often faces when standing up against her own experiences with racism. Due to her ethnic background, she is often met with people telling her: “Calm down, there’s no need to be getting upset about it. Asian jokes don’t need to be taken seriously.” These “jokes”, however, are damaging both in and of themselves and due to the racist attitudes and behaviours that they encourage.
In recent years, however, different anti-racism movements have lifted each other up in solidarity. Ryan recalled finding the Black Lives Matter movement “incredibly encouraging, as it highlighted the prevalence of racism in Ireland, and it allowed people of other ethnicities to have the courage to also speak up”.
Speaking on the #ProtectAsianLives campaign, Martinaitis expresses how he is “amazed with the amount of support from other societies in the college”. They hadn’t anticipated such a huge amount of support from societies, and the committee is now looking at the next steps they can take to continue to amplify Asian voices and spread awareness about racism.
Two societies that have publicly supported the campaign through using #TagForSolidarity on their social media platforms are Cumann Gaelach and DU History. Speaking with The University Times, Chair of Cumann Gaelach Ciara Ní Mhurchú explains why the society chose to rally behind the campaign: “We stand against racism of any kind in the Cumann Gaelach. We wholeheartedly support the Korean Association’s campaign and I think it is a good thing that they have highlighted this problem.”
Social Media Officer of DU History Meghan Flood told The University Times that “over the past year, Asian communities have faced an extreme amount of violence, xenophobia, and racism globally. These attacks have become more and more alarming as time has gone by, and it is truly important to us at DU History that we support those affected in any way we can”.
Flood emphasises how every single action counts, “so please look into the work done by Korean Soc, read their graphics, educate yourself. This is an important campaign that should have everyone’s attention”.
For those who feel uneducated about the issue, Martinaitis explains that the most important thing is for people not to hold onto “stereotypes or prejudices against Asian cultures”. Even more positive stereotypes, such as that Asians are exceptionally smart or hardworking, can be damaging to Asian people. The same way that negative stereotypes simply don’t hold true much of the time, positive stereotypes can assert a pressure that individuals don’t always want to live up to. Following on from this advice, an abundance of more useful resources can be found through links on the society’s Instagram account (@tcdkoreansoc).
Finally, Martinaitis and Ryan wanted to highlight that “this type of racism isn’t just present in countries like America, it’s here in Ireland too. We should all act now and educate ourselves to prevent it becoming a much bigger issue down the line”.
