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Nigeria

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In 1965, at Jackson, Mississippi, Matt Herron took an iconic and ironic image from the civil rights era as a white policeman rips an American flag away from a young black boy, having already confiscated his ‘No More Police Brutality’ sign. Herron remembers the events that surrounded that World Press Photo prize wining photos:

The picture was taken at the side entrance to the Governor’s mansion on Capital Street in Jackson in the summer of 1965. The boy is Anthony Quinn, aged 5. His mother, Mrs. Ailene Quinn of McComb, Mississippi and her children were trying to see Governor Paul Johnson; they wanted to protest aganist the election of five Congressmen from districts where blacks were not allowed to vote. Refused admittance, they sat on the steps. The policeman struggling with Anthony is Mississippi Highway Patrolman Hughie Kohler. As Kohler attempted to confiscate the flag, Mrs. Quinn said: ‘Anthony, don’t let that man take your flag.’ Kohler went berserk, yanking Anthony off his feet.

In the South during the civil rights movement, the American flag was a potent symbol of support for racial integration (and support for federal law). Southerners who believed in racial segregation displayed Confederate flags instead. People were pulled from their cars by policemen and beaten simply for displaying an American flag on their license plates. So the simple act of a small child carrying an American flag represented defiance of Mississippi law and custom.

Anthony and his mother were arrested and hauled off to jail, which was a cattle stockade at the county fairground, since the city jails were already full of protesters. The Quinn protest was organized by COFO (Council of Federated Organizations), an umbrella organization responsible for most civil rights activities in the state. Today Anthony lives in Florida. I believe he is a lawyer. His mother died recently, and when Patrolman Kohler died a number of years ago, his obituary in the Jackson Daily News referred to this photograph and mentioned how Kohler regretted that moment ‘for the rest of his life’.”

The Asian American Student Collective at Wesleyan is working on a photo campaign entitled, “So where are you REALLY from?”, in which we attempt to push back and fight the stereotype of the Asian American as the “perpetual foreigner.”

Through a series of photos that can be viewed on our website or Facebook,  we hope to use our experiences, thoughts, and responses to this offensive question to spark discussion on these micro aggressions that constantly plague AAPI across the United States. 

By assuming that all AAPI are foreigners, you deny us our right to be American—and embody that understanding completely. Some AAPI are born outside the US, sure. Some AAPI lived most of their lives outside of the US, absolutely. Some Asians in the US are just tourists and not American, for sure.

But this assumption that AAPI are automatically foreign is racist and prejudiced. I’m tired of being asked where I’m “really from,” because apparently with my “perfect” English there’s still no way that I’m “from” the United States. 

I do not deny my cultural and ethnic heritage. But I fully embody my right to be an American, despite these micro aggressions. 

To other AAPI, do not stand in silence when these instances occur. Speak up. Do not brush it off, which I used to be guilty of, as something that’s “no big deal.” It is a big deal.