A big part of it is being consistently dismissed or more often punished for speaking up.
Because of the myth that racism "doesn't happen" in the West, or that racism "doesn't happen" against Asian-Americans, if you try to speak up about it, one of two things will happen:
1. You'll be told that you should just rise above it[0], that you're imagining it, or (my personal favorite) that it's "not really racism" because $REASON.
2. You'll face outright retaliation for bringing it to light, and thereby forcing people to face an uncomfortable truth
After a while, the fear of these reactions gets internalized, and people decide that it's safer just to remain silent.
EDIT Ironically, as I'm writing this comment, this pattern is already playing out in the sibling comments, with more than one person telling OP that he should just ignore it (or in other words, "be better than that"). Which misses the whole point of the story.
[0] and this is how the role of the "model minority" is actually used as a weapon
A big part of it is being consistently dismissed or more often punished for speaking up.
Because of the myth that racism "doesn't happen" in the West, or that racism "doesn't happen" against Asian-Americans, if you try to speak up about it, one of two things will happen:
1. You'll be told that you should just rise above it[0], that you're imagining it, or (my personal favorite) that it's "not really racism" because $REASON.
2. You'll face outright retaliation for bringing it to light, and thereby forcing people to face an uncomfortable truth
After a while, the fear of these reactions gets internalized, and people decide that it's safer just to remain silent.
EDIT Ironically, as I'm writing this comment, this pattern is already playing out in the sibling comments, with more than one person telling OP that he should just ignore it (or in other words, "be better than that"). Which misses the whole point of the story.
[0] and this is how the role of the "model minority" is actually used as a weapon