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RACISM
How an Asian Woman’s Desire to Be White Haunts New Yorkers on Subway
A racist rant teaches us about white adjacency
In America, racism is like the rain. Sure, you can grab an umbrella before you leave the house, but ultimately, the rain will fall, and it could come at you sideways or splash you in transit. So, Black people cannot avoid racism, only mentally prepare. At least that’s what it felt like for Black people riding on a New York subway, confronted with an angry Asian woman on their commute. In a viral video, she shouted at a Black person, not visible in the frame: “you like being called a n*gger, right? That’s ’cause you act like a n*gger, B-boy! I said to stay the f*ck away from me!” When a young White man tried to intervene, the woman insulted and threatened him. Then, the Asian woman targeted a Black woman nearby: “everyone who fu*ks your Black vagina is a n*gger,” she shouted as many subway riders looked on in dismay.
Of course, some blamed mental illness for the Asian woman’s racist attack. But, to pathologize her racist tirade as a symptom further stigmatizes mental illness. It also comes off as a cheap attempt to help the woman dodge accountability. According to Rebecca Kuhns, MD, a board-certified psychiatrist, racism is not a mental illness, nor has the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of…
