The month of May brings warmer
weather and millions of posts under
the Asian American Pacific Islander
hashtag across all social media
platforms. It is AAPI Heritage
Month, a time for every Asian
American and Pacific Islander to
celebrate their respective cultures.
AAPI commemoration was first
officially recognized in 1978 as just
one week in May, and the celebration
didn’t expand into a month and
didn’t become annual until 1990.
At the same time, the U.S. Census
Bureau was using the Asian Pacific
Islander label they had used starting
in the 1980s. However, while the
Census Bureau separated the two
groups in the year 2000, the label
has continued to persist in colloquial
use and in names such as AAPI
Heritage Month. From celebrities to
“woke” corporations and Instagram
activist accounts, everyone has
started using the AAPI label, yet the
term never felt right to me.
As the word AAPI has risen in
popularity in recent months, I began
to wonder if people really had Pacific
Islanders’ interests in mind when
they used the AAPI label. I grew up
in Hawaii, and as I met more people
from mainland America, I realized
just how little people know about the
Pacific Islands. Most of my mainland
American friends didn’t even know
the three regions composing the
Pacific Islands, yet all of a sudden,
it
seemed
like
everyone
was
discussing violence against Asian
Americans AND Pacific Islanders.
As I read article after article with
AAPI in the headline, I noticed that I
found nearly no quotes from Pacific
Islanders. I waded through a flood
of Asian-focused writing until I
found articles specifically centering
Pacific Islanders’ opinions on the
AAPI label.
The AAPI label continues to
spread
online
without
people
understanding its flaws. Despite
comprising half the acronym, Pacific
Islanders, composed of Polynesian,
Melanesian and Micronesian ethnic
groups, are often left out of the
discussion surrounding AAPI issues.
In reality, AAPI in most contexts
just means Asian, more specifically
East Asian, yet tacks on Pacific
Islanders like an afterthought. While
AAPI and Asian American seem
like innocuous and interchangeable
terms to us non-Pacific Islanders, our
carelessness with the label harms the
Pacific Islander community we claim
to want to uplift.
In an attempt to be inclusive, the
use of the AAPI can end up causing
more harm than good. Pacific
Islanders are often drowned out
by the comparatively large influx
of Asian American voices. As a
result, the issues and needs of Asian
Americans are projected onto Pacific
Islander Americans, misrepresenting
the actual struggles Pacific Islanders
face. For example, according to
research compiled by APM Research
Lab, Pacific Islander Americans are
facing COVID-19 infection rates
nearly two times higher than Asian
Americans.
6
Thursday, May 20, 2021
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
When I arrived in Ann Arbor
in January, I embarked on a quest
to survive my second semester of
college. Along my epic journey, I
faced powerful foes such as Calculus
2 and second year-level Japanese.
Night after night, I crossed swords
with Taylor polynomials and kanji
characters. Despite several defeats
over the course of the semester, I
vanquished my last final exams and
claimed the ultimate treasure, an
ancient relic I had long since forgotten:
free time. Immediately after my Calc
2 final, I swiftly exited Gradescope
and navigated over to Steam; it was
time I enjoyed myself with a good
video game after months of non-
stop work. Combing through my
backlog of games, I stumbled across
“Omori,” a psychological horror
game set in a deceptively bright and
colorful, nostalgic, 8-bit fantasy world
brimming with amusing characters
and heartfelt moments.
I bought Omori just a few days after
its release after seeing a video showing
the game’s cute art style on Tiktok.
I had anticipated the game’s horror
elements from its description on
Steam; nevertheless I was still a little
shocked when my player character
began in a sparse, eerie white room
called Whitespace. After poking
around the area and obtaining a knife
as a weapon, a door became accessible
and let me venture through the
world with other friendly characters
I met. The pastel world design and
charming characters were so adorable
that I pretty much forgot that this was
a horror game. And because I was
familiar with the fairly simple combat
system found in other turn-based
role-playing games like “Pokémon,”
I was immediately comfortable with
Omori. As a result, I never wondered
why there was an inaccessible menu
option labelled “???” on the top-left
corner of my screen (Since I was still
in the tutorial, I figured this would
be a normal tool that would open up
to me later). And when my character
learned a combat skill bluntly labelled
“stab,” I never viewed it as anything
more than a basic element typical to
the genre.
This
comforting
familiarity
combined with Omori’s exaggeratedly
adorable world design lulled me into a
false sense of security and quietly set
me up for calamity.
After I spent about 30 minutes
learning
the
in-game
combat
mechanics, becoming acquainted
with the main cast and marveling at
the charming world and character
design,
one
of
the
supporting
characters
suddenly
became
enveloped by a mysterious darkness.
Completely unexplained, the player
character is teleported back to
Whitespace, except now the door
I once passed through is gone. The
sudden ejection from my pastoral
fantasyland back into the sinister
Whitespace left me trembling as I
yearned for the sense of comfort I
felt just minutes prior. With no clear
way out in an infinite and empty
room, I wandered around aimlessly,
desperately searching for the exit but
to no avail. Out of options, I opened up
the in-game menu in order to search
for an item or something to use.
“STAB,” written in a bold red
font, replaced the “???” option I
had previously ignored. Once I
apprehensively selected the “STAB”
option, the game prompted me to
confirm that I wanted to stab my
player character.
Disclaimer:
This
collective
statement
is
written
under
the
crucial understanding that Israel is
an occupation and apartheid. It is an
occupation in that it controls who goes
in and out of Palestine and continuously
and illegally occupies Palestinian land
through Israeli police aggression and
Israeli “Defense” Forces, which we
will more accurately refer to as the
Israeli Occupation Forces throughout
this statement since “defense” falsely
implies an equivalent power to defend
against. Israel is an apartheid in that the
Palestinian citizens of Israel are treated
as less than by the Israeli government
on issues from a lack of civil rights
compared to Jewish citizens of Israel, to
medical discrimination, to a lack of clean
water, and property expulsions. Israel
exists at the expense of Palestinians,
and for that, this piece is centered on the
importance of a liberated Palestine.
Introduction
Saturday, May 15 marked the
annual
commemoration
of
the
Nakba (Nakba is the Arabic word
for “catastrophe”). Since 1948, the
ongoing Nakba has resulted in the
displacement of over 7.2 million
Palestinians, the brutal genocide of
over 1,240,000 Palestinians and the
destruction of over 927 Palestinian
villages. This day signifies yet
another year of oppression and forced
immobility for the Palestinian people
as they continuously suffer from the
structurally violent state of Israel
that works to oppress, dispossess and
displace Palestinians. The oppression
of Palestinian people is commonly
mislabeled as a “conflict” between
two sides. This false characterization
serves as an erasure of Palestinian
oppression and suggests Palestine’s
defense is equally oppressive. Israel
has one of the most extensive armies
in the world, while Palestine does
not have a unified military and has
restricted access to weaponry; it’s
clear that “bothsidesism” and the
notion of an equal conflict are not
only inapplicable, but dangerous.
The magnitude of Israeli settler-
colonialism, the development of the
apartheid-state and the ongoing
ethnic cleansing committed against
Palestinians
indicates
that
this
oppression should more accurately
be termed a humanitarian crisis. The
oppression of Palestinians is rooted in
Zionism: a racist, ultra-nationalistic
ideology that, while based on the
desire for Jewish self-determination,
strips Palestinians of their rights
on their own ancestral land and
justifies the continuous perpetration
of inhumane war crimes towards
Palestinians. The bigotry and violence
birthed from Zionism is the direct
reason that Israel violently targeted
Palestinians in the Al-Aqsa Mosque on
May 7, killed over 197 Palestinians in
Gaza with airstrikes in the last week,
murdered at least seven people in the
occupied West Bank and violently
attempted to dispossess Palestinian
families in Sheikh Jarrah.
May 15 of 2021, Nakba Day,
commemorates 73 years of pain for
Palestinians, characterized by years
of air strikes, innumerable violations
of humanitarian laws — including the
denial of basic rights for Palestinians
such as the right to own property or
vote — and relentless weaponization
of international aid in support of
Israel. Much of academia, from
students to scholars, dismisses the
oppression endured by Palestinians
as complex, but in reality it is quite
simple to understand — Israel is the
oppressor and Palestinians are the
oppressed.
Performative Diversity in Netflix’s
Shadow and Bone
Michigan in Color Collective
Statement on Palestine
The PI in AAPI is silenced
ANDREW NAKAMURA
MiC Columnist
SAFURA SYED
MiC Columnist
MICHIGAN IN COLOR
STAFF
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MICHIGAN IN COLOR