Yellow Journalism in 2005: Chinese "Terrorists"

Ching-In Chen and Lydia Lowe
2/2/05

"Find them!"  screamed the headlines of the Boston Herald.  "Six sought after tip alleging 'dirty bomb'," said the Boston Globe.  On January 20, newspapers across the country featured prominent mug shots of four Chinese nationals alleged on January 17 by an anonymous tipster to be involved, along with two Iraqis, in a vague plan to detonate a "dirty bomb" in Boston.  These allegations later proved to be not only false, but not even worthy of follow-up.  But with apparently nothing more to go on than an anonymous tip to the California Highway Patrol, the four individuals' faces were plastered nationwide.

This kind of irresponsible reporting may make a sensational story for the headlines, but comes at great cost to the Asian American, immigrant and other non-white communities that are easily targeted for scapegoating.  It’s not uncommon for any of us to hear “Go back where you came from” or some other reference to our “foreignness” at any time of the day.   That same day, we heard reports of a bus driver in Somerville who notified the police that he had spotted the terrorists when some Chinese immigrant riders boarded his bus.  It is a sad but well-known fact that Asian faces all look alike to a number of white Americans. 

The January wave of media madness followed an earlier series of bizarre reports by the Boston Herald alleging links between reported Salvadorean gang activity in East Boston and Al Qaeda.  Between the 9/11 terrorists, the dirty bombers, the Salvadorean gangsters, and the sneaker bomber, it seems that all people of color now fit the terrorist profile.

Yellow journalism is nothing new to Asian Americans.  The sensationalist media and its racist, satirical cartoons played a critical role in the growth of the anti-Chinese movement of the late 1800s which eventually led to the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the first US law to block the entry of a particular ethnic group.  Chinese immigration was illegal until the end of World War II, when Chinese American soldiers were allowed to bring in their war brides and immigration laws were eventually liberalized.  During the war, the media ran articles on "How to tell a Chinese from a Jap" in order to help the American public distinguish between allies and enemies.  More recently, Chinese American scientist Wen-Ho Lee and military chaplain James Yee were tried in the media as spies and traitors before any legal or administrative process could declare them innocent of charges.

This irresponsible reporting takes on new dimensions in our post-9/11 world, a world in which the public is conditioned to be fearful and civil liberties are sacrificed in the name of homeland security.   Of course, the media alone cannot shoulder the blame for this travesty.  Since when does the FBI plaster mug shots nationwide to enlist the public in a manhunt on the basis of nothing but an anonymous tip?  It is no surprise that the same government that is taking away our civil liberties through such acts as the Patriot Act is also negligent in thinking about how its actions may negatively impact its citizens.

Suspiciously, there was a void of follow-up articles for days after the headlines blasted the dirty bomb threat.  Then, nearly a week later, came another headline: "FBI finds terror threat was fabricated."  According to this new report, a drunken taxi driver in Mexicali made the call from his cellphone "purely as a joke," setting off the search for four Chinese nationals who apparently attempted to sneak over the border into the US in search of a better life.

As Michael Liu of the Institute for Asian American Studies said the day of the big headlines, "It's comical, except that it's tragic." 

Lydia Lowe is the Executive Director of the Chinese Progressive Association, a community organization based in Boston Chinatown.  Ching-In Chen is the Director of Programs of the Asian American Resource Workshop, which does arts, activism and education in the Asian American community.