Page 13 - Mar_Apr 2022 Newsletter.pub_Neat

Continued from page 12 Then my mom needed more of my time so I stepped down from being Associate
Dean for Stanford University School of Medicine. I didn’t feel “pretty”, I felt
stressed. But then I thought the photo would be accurate, and maybe even helpful. Being pretty wasn’t
the point of the article and didn’t help the women killed in Atlanta. Being invisible didn’t help the elder-
ly walking, shopping, and trying to survive in Chinatown. The outdoor, socially distance photo shoot
took place on Stanford campus. I wore blue and yellow (every day since the Russian invasion of Ukraine)
to signal a stand against all forms of bullying and violence, not just against Asians. I took off my N95,
mask marks still intact, full sun, no makeup. My friends told me I looked “fierce” and “like a boss.” I like
it better than my smiling photos.
Then there were the comments, >150 in the first 8-12 hours of the Washington Post article. An NCPS
past president asked if I’d write about them. Several colleagues advised that it’d be better for my mental
health to ignore the “trolls.” But the trolls exist, and we can only deal with what we know about. So
thank you for asking, and I gladly accept. Here are the results.
15 comments (10%) said the Atlanta shootings were not racist. Some noted that “only” 6 of the 8 victims
were Asian women, the others being a handyman and a customer getting a couple’s massage with her
newlywed husband. One blamed Asian-American activists for being “emotionally invested in fighting in-
justice that they start to see injustice everywhere, even where it doesn’t exist… is what gives their lives
meaning.” Apparently being a doctor, professor, Associate Dean, wife, mother, daughter, and frequently
saving lives (quite literally) was not enough to give my life meaning! I suspect the other women in the
article, ranging from students to food writer to a cancer epidemiologist, would be similarly surprised to
be defined by their “activism”.
Nine comments accused the article of being “fluff”, “overdramatic”, lacking “perspective”, and furthering
the Washington Post’s “agenda”. One said “please name all the other mass-murderers of Asian women
running around”. I then looked up the number of women Jack the Ripper had killed: 5 confirmed, possi-
bly more, but a century later his crimes are still acknowledged as evil. Were the Scotland Yard detectives
overdramatic? The article mentioned other acts of violence besides the Atlanta shootings. Some com-
menters dismissed the headlined episodes as being isolated, and one questioned whether our first-
person, nonfatal episodes even existed: “…at an airport?!? You mean the place with police officers every
ten feet? And another traveler just hauled off and screamed in her face for no reason?”
A dismaying number (8) of comments blamed “persons of color” and “non-whites” and “other minorities”,
and mentioned Black Lives Matter. This is neither accurate nor helpful: the shooter in Atlanta was not a
person of color, and statistics show the perpetrators in the majority of anti-Asian crimes are not. The
idea that one minority group is to blame for another group’s woes has been used to justify apartheid
(read “Born a Crime” by Trevor Noah), the Holocaust, and the burning of Korean shops after the verdict
against the white police officers who beat Rodney King. It’s sad but not surprising it should reappear
Continued on page 14

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA PSYCHIATRIC SOCIETY Page 13 March/April 2022