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'The Yellow Square' Controversy: Performative activism for #StopAsianHate slammed for 'Yellow Peril' roots

In a world of social awareness where performative activism is often confused with being woke, posting a colored square on Instagram is clearly not 'it'

The year 2020 was marked by two major happenings: the coronavirus pandemic; and the protests against police brutality stemming from systemic racism. The year 2021 has so far been marked by two elements: the still continuing pandemic, and protests against Asian American hate. With ex-POTUS Donald Trump continuing to address the pandemic as the 'China virus', America was one of the countries where people of Asian descent were targeted over their ethnicity. The March spa shooting spree in Atlanta that left eight dead, six out of whom were Asian women, was embematic of that racial targeting.

Protests gained momentum along the lines of the Black Lives Matter movement. The term 'Stop Asian Hate' became a widely promoted hashtag, but that wasn't the only element of these protests which resembled the protests last year. Borrowing the audacious black-square tactic from 2020, an account called @88rising posted a yellow square to express solidarity with the Asian community. Soon others followed suit, sharing yellow squares on Instagram or incorporating the color boldly in infographics. As many pointed out, this was not only ironic, but dangerously problematic too. For years, the colour yellow has been used as a stereotype for Asian people - with its 'Yellow Peril' roots lying in the racially charged archetype concocted by white supremacists. And soon controversy arose around the use of the colour in a movement opposing hate against Asians.

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The Yellow Square 

Back in 2020, to express solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and to protest police brutality faced by the community, non-Black people decided to share black squares as part of a '#BlackOut' campaign, where they wouldn't post anything else for the rest of the day. Believed to have been originated by White influencers, sharing a black square on social media was soon criticized by many, who dubbed it as performative activism. The idea of keeping silent to express solidarity was also called out, with people pointing out how staying silent isn't really an ideal form of allyship.

Also, this outpouring of black squares was drowning out important information regarding protests and news shared by activists on the ground. Soon it evolved into an argument about who's the better ally - something that was repeated this year when 88rising shared their since-deleted photo on March 17. Described as a “hybrid management, record label, video production, and marketing company," the company's photo was captioned: "Enough is enough. Heartbroken with the disgusting and senseless violence in Georgia tonight. Violence against the Asian community has to stop. Let’s protect each other and stand against hate. More from us soon." After them followed the official @NAACP Instagram page, which shared a "Stop Asian Hate” square, that had yellow letters against a black background. And yellow squares were also posted with images painted in black on them to express solidarity.

Soon people began condemning 88rising's idea of protesting, with one user pointing out, "I thought the yellow square things was a joke but apparently 88rising is actually trying to make it a thing." Others claimed, "It doesnt sit right with me that 88 rising posts a yellow square as an act to tackle the issue at hand when most of their artists are asian ppl of different ethnicities and skin colour, like if ur thought is “oh asian activism = yellow square” then u might be the problem."

What is the 'Yellow Peril'?

It wasn't long before one Twitter user pointed out: "Posting a yellow square to show your “support for asians” is both performative and offensive so please don't do that? the “yellow peril” was a racist colour metaphor that westerners created to emphasise their xenophobia towards asians. asia is diverse in skin tones too???"

Also known as the "Yellow Fear", "Yellow Terror", and the "Yellow Specter", the Yellow Peril is a category of xenophobia marked by fear of the Orientals or the non-White.

The fantasy was presented in Lothrop Stoddard's 1920 book 'The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy' and portrays Asians as an existential dread to the West. Russian sociologist Jacques Novikow coined the term in the 1987 essay 'Le Péril Jaune' which translates to 'The Yellow Peril' and Kaiser Wilhelm II even used the concept to encourage European invasion and colonization of China. 

In simpler terms, those were the origins of the racist 'yellow' slur aimed at Asians. In her interview published by NPR, Kate Chow quotes Indiana University professor Ellen Wu, calling the term 'yellow' in reference to Asian people 'noxious'.

"To some, it's on par with Chink, gook, nip or Chinaman," Chow writes in her article, adding other equally offensive slurs used to address Asians all over the world. 

Why Yellow Squares are so wrong

Over the years, the issue of accessorizing Asian traditions, clothing, and just tidbits of the culture into mainstream White media has been slammed as blatant appropriation. So when 88rising chose to use yellow to represent solidarity, of course things blew up. In the wake of the controversy, 88rising issued an apology too - the standard 'not intentioned, but sorry' one. They quickly deleted their yellow square post and shared a statement that read: "Thank you to our community for sharing your comments and critiques with us. It was never our intention to cause harm, but we recognize the effects of our actions and apologize."

Promising to correct themselves and attempting to crowdsource ideas on how to do so from followers, this apology too was met with further criticism. "Instead of trying to make a trend by copying something else, post organizations, tag AAPI activists etc. Find out if there will be vigils for the people who died. It’s rather simple," one user commented on the apology post. Once again, it was a war between allies -- intentional or not -- just the way it had trickled down to that base point during the time of the #BlackOut squares. In a world of social awareness where woke people are classified into performative activists, and those who actually want to do good, posting a colored square on Instagram is clearly the last thing one should be doing.