16 year-old Reva Sobti is the winner of the Harbinger Prize 2024
If there is anyone I would pledge my full support to if they decided to, I don’t know, start a dictatorship or something, it would have to be Gloria Delgado-Pritchett from the ABC sitcom Modern Family. She’s the best character, she could probably take on the Mafia and do it in heels.
Her only downfall: her husband, Jay. Jay is always buying himself el sombrero mexicano to prove to his Columbian Gloria that he knows her culture, but, oh my, dare anyone suggest that Canadian and American cultures are similar. Jay’s racist shots in the dark are sad to watch, but this brand of racism does provide a lesson.
‘Crossfire racism’, as it’s known, is racism intended to target a particular racial group, but due to a lack of awareness it hits a different racial minority. This oversimplified homogenization is a brand of racial profiling that is reductive to our unique and individual cultures, creating prejudice that applies to groups it’s not supposed to.
Today, I will delve deeper into why this is such a big problem, then figure out where it’s ‘really from’ before, finally, profiling some solutions. Because I will not remain silent in the face of not only racism but blatant ignorance.
One thing I don’t get about Americans is the tanning culture. Just checking if I got this right – white people don’t like me and any other darker-skinned people because of our color, but those same white people are ready to die for this color, literally. Despite how appealing our gorgeous tan skin is, most people just don’t see beneath our color.
First, the problems with crossfire racism. Not going to lie, getting subjected to crossfire racism sucks. Not only do you realize that “this person is racist”, but being a victim of crossfire racism can make a person feel like their only identity is their presumed race, which has severe implications on both the mind and the body.
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Medical News Todayreported that ‘a 2021 study found that COVID-19 related racial/ethnic discrimination had links with a greater risk of depression, anxiety, self-harm… and suicidal ideation among Asian American and Pacific Islander students’.
Essentially, when politicians deemed Covid the “China virus”, East Asians alike felt the repercussions, whether they were actually of Chinese descent or not. The hate crimes against Asians during the pandemic are a prime example of the extremely malicious nature of crossfire racism, a form of xenophobia that can blister into such a strong culture of fear and violence.
One of the main reasons why crossfire racism is so problematic is that all of the victims are innocent and the offender is also off by entire races. Sikh people – a religious group originating in Punjab, India, that have been a part of American history for more than 155 years – and everyone else were getting along just fine until a few years ago, when suddenly your Sikh doctors, students, and neighbors were portrayed as terrorists hiding bombs under their turbans.
FBI data on hate crimes found that ‘between 2020 and 2021, anti-Sikh hate crimes increased by 140%, from 89 incidents to 214’ according to the Sikh Coalition.
This makes Sikhs the second-most targeted religious group in the US (after the Jewish community) even though there are only a few cases of individual terrorism. These racists aren’t just ignorant but lazy, and they refuse to educate themselves on cultural differences despite living in a world of diversity.
Now this crossfire racism thing is pretty severe, but when you search for the term online, what comes up? Hmm… let’s see, a crossfire shooting? New Cross fire? But nothing about racism. So what it looks like to me is that we need a little help putting all these incidents together to figure out what the causes of crossfire racism are.
Read the full study:
Neural adaptation to faces reveals racial outgroup homogeneity effects in early perception
The Guardianreported on a US study from 2019 examining how the human brain responds when identifying those of a different race. Scientists found that white participants were more sensitive to smaller differences in white faces compared to those in the faces of other races, due to an increased exposure to those of their own race. So the reason why people often see two different races as the same is simply because they have never been surrounded by the people and culture of that race.
However, the study’s co-author, Dr. Brent Hughes from the University of California, Riverside, stated how “these race biases in perception are malleable and subject to individual motivations and goals”. So even though the culture we were surrounded by in our youth may have wired our brains to distinguish the individuals of our own ethnicity, this is not an excuse.
On the surface, crossfire racism may seem like accidental racism due to a lack of awareness of different cultures, but, in reality, it is a deliberate and systematic attempt at fostering hatred between different ethnicities in order to keep us from fighting back against those that are actually oppressing us.
‘The architecture of American racism is not an unfortunate accident’ wrote Victor Ray and Alan Aja for The Washington Post. ‘Highly educated lawyers devise arguments to protect police who kill black and brown folks and highly educated prosecutors decline to bring charges,’ they added.
Those who are supposed to represent our nation’s sense of justice are willing to bend the laws to allow crossfire racism to persist, simultaneously stripping people of color of individuality and pride in our unique cultures.
Now I’m going to tell you all a joke and you guys tell me if it’s funny or not. “All Muslims are terrorists”. Real knee-slapper, huh? Well, my friend thought it was. This person knew I wasn’t Muslim and by his logic, not a terrorist, but if he didn’t know me would he have mistaken me or my family as one of his terrorists? Because he wouldn’t be the first.
Now I can only hope that no one here found his joke funny, but I do know that many would, so we must uncover the solutions to crossfire racism
In order to have a world of truly accepting citizens, cultural awareness must be taught to the young students of today who will go on to set the stage of our tomorrow. A 2020 research paper titled ‘What the Research Says About Ethnic Studies’, describes a white high-school student’s change in attitude over a semester-long course on Native American literature. The student ‘came to reconceptualize her identity and knowledge in a way that took into consideration the lives, knowledges, and perspectives of others’.
Not only was this student able to open her mind to the privilege she has a white person, but she was also able to see the individual cultures and traditions of each Native American tribe. This study shows that if we expose our youth to other cultures, they will learn to understand how to embrace the nuances that give a culture its identity, simultaneously extinguishing crossfire racism.
Lastly, all people of color need to unite in this fight against crossfire racism. Just like the wise Snoop Dogg once said, “We need to fight for each other, not one another”. While it’s important to acknowledge each race for its individuality, if we unite, we can spread a message more powerful than any message we can put out there standing alone.
In 2016, NBC News shared the story of Arish Singh, a Sikh American who stood up to Donald Trump’s blatant Islamophobia by holding up a ‘Stop Hate’ banner at one of Trump’s rallies. After being kicked out, Arish Singh tweeted, “I am not a Muslim. But you don’t have to be a Muslim to stand against anti-Muslim bigotry.”
In Western society, Sikhs and Muslims are often pitted against each other, creating animosity and distrust between the two religious groups. Singh’s decision to speak out against Islamophobia while representing his own religion showed that Sikhs and Muslims can unite against this systematic oppression. By standing with each other, we take away our oppressors’ ability to break us, which disables the power that crossfire racism holds over us.
I have to give it to Jay – over the seasons of Modern Family, he put in a lot of work to put his days as a crossfire racist in the past. Similarly, we too can reform ourselves, by better understanding the problem of crossfire racism, why it happens, and how we can perpetuate support instead of hate.
After all, taking a step towards seeing people for who they are is a step towards a world where understanding is given.
