"These slogans isolate Chinese in a time when it is imperative for all Asian Americans to stand together"
‘I’m Korean Not Chinese’ T-shirts have sparked a rift between Asian American communities.
According to Hong Kong tabloid Apple Daily and Chinese state media China Daily, the shirts were being sold on Australian fashion company Redbubble.
Typing “I am not Chinese” into the website’s search box reportedly reveals 187 results of anti-Chinese slogans.
Many shirts claimed the wearer was from an Asian country such as Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea or Thailand, with the slogan “I’m not Chinese” under it.
The shirts were called out by critics as “grotesque” and discriminatory against Chinese people. Social media users reportedly called the shirts “malicious” and “the work of losers.”
China Daily highlights that the shirt damages #StopAsianHate movement by creating divisions within the Asian American community.
“These slogans have obvious connotations,” the paper states. “They are isolating Chinese in a time when it is imperative for all Asian-Americans to stand together.”
“‘Yes, I am Asian. No, I am not Chinese'” also puts double pressure on Chinese Americans amid increasing cases of anti-Asian hatred. Chinese-Americans must tolerate discrimination from white supremacy as well as exclusion from Asian ethnic groups.”
“When the world calls for zero tolerance of racism and anti-Asian hatred, provoking dissension among Asians only peddles discrimination and fuels racial hatred.”
The shirts have since been removed from the platform.
There has been a recent rise in attacks on Asians across America. Recent attacks against the country include an Asian woman who was hit in the face in Philadelphia.
In California, Vietnamese family was tied up in their own home by robbers who stole their entire life savings in Oakland, California.
Also in California, an elderly Asian American woman was kicked in the face by a suspect who was on parole for fatally stabbing his mother.
Meanwhile, a Japanese American man was randomly punched in the face whilst walking in Washington D.C.
In San Francisco, a 19-year-old Asian hate crime victim was shot in the eye. and in LA, a 28-year-old Asian mother died in a fatal shooting in Compton.
Also in San Francisco, an Asian woman was attacked and dragged by a getaway car.
Additionally, a 13-year-old boy was racially attacked in Flushing.
An Asian American mother was also stabbed to death by a homeless woman in Riverside, and a woman in Seattle was arrested and charged with a hate crime for threatening her Asian American neighbour.
Elsewhere, a racist woman was caught making racist comments on a picture of a 2-year-old Asian girl.
Meanwhile, a 70-year-old Mexican American woman was attacked and hospitalized in LA after being mistaken for an Asian woman.
In other media-related news, CNN director Charlie Chester was caught on hidden camera admitting hiding black-on-Asian crimes to preserve the BLM narrative.