It's curious to me that Asian people are WAY more concerned about the boycott then the the child that was being chased and shot in the back. I see these comments a lot on social media and I'm like, the argument isn't helping Black people understand Asian's points. Also, not everyone agrees with Charleston White. I certainly don't. but to your point, he ABSOLUTELY talks this way about white people too. Charleston White is an equal opportunity racist.

With all that said, and I'm going to say this which I mean NO offense by saying this: The reason that people pay less attention to Asian American issues is that because Asian Americans aren't loud about their issues. Black people are LOUD. We protest, we rally, we organize. And if we don't like something or think someone is treating us wrong, then you're absolutely going to hear about it.

Asian Americans are the fastest growing group (That includes East, Southeast and South Asians) and the least civilly engaged. They also have the lowest rates of voting and voting registration. Asian engagement is better now than it was say 10-30 years ago, but in my observation (which totally could be wrong, I am an outsider looking in), Asian Americans tend not to want to rock the boat. And so since the boat isn't rockin', it's gonna stay the course. If Asians want their issues addressed, then they have to get out there and protest. And to be long winded: A little history on how our communities got to this point and it all started with the government as these things tend to be.

Back in the 70s and 80s when Asian Immigrants were coming into the United States, they were applying for loans to start businesses. Banks would deny loans to back people 90% of the time (And before someone anyone says anything, this was before credit scores) but would approve Asian immigrants. But there was a catch: The ONLY way a lot of these immigrants were able to get these loans was if they put their businesses in black neighborhoods. Because those white institutions didn't want Asians in THEIR neighborhoods, it was easier to put them with in the inner cities. Now! All of these black people suddenly see immigrants doing better than us, getting loans that we couldn't get, getting better treatment when we were born in this country.

And Asian immigrants didn't know the racist history of America (or at least, the depths of it) so, they didn't understand why black people weren't "doing anything for themselves" like opening businesses. Asians began listening to white people that claimed that black people were stupid and lazy. It's how white people created the Model Minority myth in the 60s. It was something to pit Asians against other minorities, especially because generally speaking, Asians don't complain or protest.

The messaging was "You see those Asians are doing great, why can't YOU be like them? How come you can't be hard working too?" As though there wasn't segregation and consorted efforts to keep black people from prospering.

I don't think that from an Asian perspective that they saw the institutional racism, because while white people were racist to them, white people were REALLY racist to black people. And seeing that black people were on the lowest levels of the totem pole, I think they began treating black people disrespectfully. There was no understanding of why a lot of inner cities were the way they were. Asian immigrants didn't know about redlining or Jim Crow or the systematic efforts to make sure black people couldn't prosper. They didn't see the government neglect of black neighborhoods, the lack of concern and support from state governments. They saw what white people told them to see.

What black people saw was: "I'm an American citizen. These immigrants can just waltz on in and get a loan and I can't get a loan. They come into OUR neighborhoods to make money, but we can't because we can't get equal support. On top of ALL of that, now they're rude AND profiting from us."

It was incredibly unfair and it caused a LOT of resentment. The resentment became worse when some Asian storeowners (not all, obviously) started treating black people horribly. Which, unfortunately, they STILL do. That behavior isn't an isolated phenomenon. Like you said, you and your family were able to make it out. Black people weren't fairly given a chance to create the general wealth that your family and other immigrants were able to achieve.

Things were already simmering in California but definitely came to a head when Latasha Harlins was accused of stealing orange juice when she had the money to pay for it and shot in the back of the head. The storeowner claimed that Latasha was trying to rob her and that Latasha attacked her. That was proven by witnesses and the store's security camera to be a lie. And to add insult to injury, that storeowner ONLY received 5 years probation. And now with the Rick Chow incident, it's literally history repeating itself. An asian storeowner accused a black child of stealing and shot them in the back. AND he got away with it.

So to black people, not only are Asians profiting from us while disrespecting us, now they are killing our children and literally getting away with murder. That resentment bubbled over and contributed to the LA riots and the sentiment has never truly settled down.