In my lifetime I’ve been mistaken as Jet Li, Jenny Shimizu , a whole slew of other Asians including friends that I know, that I know that they’re thinking about, instead of me. That says a lot about the world we live in, but it also says a lot about you.

The pattern of the media and others substituting photos, names, and likenesses, of one Asian for another, is the exact brand of racism that directly contributes to anti-Asian violence, murder, and hate.

Replicating ideas of a monolithic myth, enabling the racism that “all Asians look alike,” is exactly why people have been attacking Asians in mass shootings, why anti-Asian hate crimes have increased 600% in some parts of the country, and why it is even more so in cities with larger Asian populations.

It is not a “harmless mistake” when those actions cause misconceptions, which feed into bias, which fuel generalization, which dehumanize, which lead to the very real repercussions of anti-Asian hate crimes.

It is absolutely imperative to make the connection between choices and decisions made every day and the very real consequences they have on the lives and deaths of our people.