Asian American men, we need to do better to support other marginalized groups

On Halloween night, three Rice students came to Willy’s Pub dressed up as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. When I first found out that two of the three students were Asian men — one East Asian and one South Asian — I wanted to have nothing to do with the situation. But rather than writing off this incident as a senseless act to distance ourselves from, I believe that Asian American men need to collectively take responsibility for this behavior by reflecting on why it occurred and how we need to do better. While I don’t know the life stories of the two Asian students who wore the ICE costumes to Pub, their actions point to overarching patterns of Asian men acting as both complicit bystanders and active participants in systems of oppression.