Unmasking Yellow Peril

With Unmasking Yellow Peril, we seek to move beyond #StopAsianHate to ground ourselves in the long history of Yellow Peril, uncover its main forms, and resist it in the time of COVID-19. Anti-Asian violence in the United States has risen 1900%. This is happening in the context of decades of racialized class conflict stemming from the Model Minority Myth and an even longer history of Yellow Peril. We are also reminded that these attacks are tied to deep histories of racism and inequity in this country. The rise in Anti-Asian violence and devastation of Pacific Islanders by the pandemic underscores the urgency of responding with long term commitments to transforming our schools and community safety that disavows anti-Black reactions and supports indigenous sovereignty. Our struggles are connected and our struggles are not the same. 

The 18 Million Rising team wrote Unmasking Yellow Peril at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in collaboration with the Asian and Asian American Studies Institute (UConn), and Jason Oliver Chang, Associate Professor of History and Asian American Studies (UConn) to address and historicize the escalation of anti-Asian violence and hate.

Unmasking Yellow Peril is a free zine full of archival images, forgotten histories, and critical analysis.