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Professor Jonathan Okamura is the author of Ethnicity and Inequality in Hawai i, his area of specialty for more than 30 years at UH Manoa. Perpetual foreigners. That s one of the dominant, racist stereotypes of Asian Americans, he said.
COVID-19 just brought it to the surface, Okamura said, but shunning and violence are overt expressions of subtler dynamics that happen every day.
Credit Noe Tanigawa
Tech developer Jeff Kim lived on the East Coast, in L.A. and in Chicago. As a teen, he recalls a friend with whom he thought he shared mutual understanding and respect. I saw him just passing by on the street and he said, Hey Jeff, my favorite Asian friend! Kim said. And I told him immediately, I said, Why can t I just be your favorite friend period. You know he just kind of laughed it off and it just always stuck with me.