Anti-Asian Racism in Europe

A multimedia story about how anti-Asian racism affects Europeans from Asian descent

Cathy

‘We need to talk more about internalized racism: the one we get from living in a white supremacist society and that is dangerous. The issue is that Asian communities, particularly the first generations, value reputation and career, which means mental health is rarely spoken of in them. If the community pressure had been lighter, I would have learned to love myself a lot earlier.’

Le

‘In general, I don’t see a problem with the question “where are you from?”, but people always expect a specific answer to fulfill their prejudiced thoughts.
There was never a time in my life when people didn’t question me further after I answered “I’m from Leipzig, Germany”. There were always a “but where are you really from?” or “where are your parents from?” following. I don’t think we should ban the question, but people should stop expecting certain answers and respect our boundaries.’

Tara

‘Getting called racist and misogynistic names in public is more common in Europe, and the pandemic has added Corona-related ones to the list of “Ching-chang-chong, Ni Hao, Jackie Chan, Kung Fu” and so on. I feel like people who throw these racist slurs just have too much testosterone and big egos that lead them to behave strangely. I don’t know if I want to engage with such people anymore. At all.’

June

‘Even if people at time treat me as if I were not German, I am! I was born and raised here, and I speak German better than Vietnamese. Many of my friends told me their parents wanted them to focus on German at school, to be well-integrated and have the skills needed to apply for jobs later. Many Vietnamese had to sacrifice a part of their culture, to be able to fit here. That’s really hard.’

“These stories might be new to you but these experiences are nothing new for people of Asian descent. We live in the EU and we experience racism and xenophobia on a daily basis – this is the truth. We are not all the same – we all look different, we have different stories. Therefore, this project is made specifically for people of Southeast Asian descent to let others know that our stories and experiences are valid.“

Words by Irma Fadhila - founder & photographer behind the *whereamireallyfrom* project.