Statement on Malden Ward 8 Councillor’s Racist Costume
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Andrea So, President of the Board of Directors, Greater Malden Asian American Community Coalition (GMAACC), admin@gmaacc.org
Statement on Malden Ward 8 Councillor’s Racist Costume
We are Asian American residents, community members, activists, and allies, of Malden, MA.
While we extend congratulations to Malden Ward 8 City Councillor Sica-Bernbaum for her recent victory, in the same week, we were deeply disturbed and enraged to receive a screenshot of a Facebook photo of Councillor Sica-Bernbaum’s Halloween costume as a massage worker from “Orchids of Asia,” along with a man dressed as Robert Kraft. This costume is harmful, racist, and ignorant.
We condemn this photo for the following reasons:
The mockery of the pain and hardships faced by the Asian immigrant women who were massage workers in Orchids of Asia, many of whom were jailed, arrested, or detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), while billionaire and Patriots owner Robert Kraft received no such sentence.
The use of yellowface, or posing as Asian through costume, which historically leads to the dehumanization of Asian people.
Reinforcement of the narrative which hypersexualizes Asian women, which in the worst cases, leads to tragic events such as the Atlanta shootings. The choice to wear a bamboo hat to represent the race of the massage worker, paired with a bottle of lotion or sunscreen, is incredibly harmful.
Our culture, our people, and our pain are not a costume. Malden is a city that is just a little over 22% Asian American. Our youth, especially our young women, should not see themselves represented and mocked in this way by an elected official of our town. This is racial violence: the appropriation of Asian identity for someone’s amusement.
We don’t know when this photo was taken or why the City Councillor chose to don this costume. Perhaps it was in Halloween 2019, right before the pandemic that sparked heightened racism against Asian American elders and women. Or perhaps it was this year. That said, if it were taken anytime that Councillor Sica-Bernbaum was an elected official — representing Asian American residents in Malden — we expect all of our elected officials in Malden to make a public commitment to disavow racism and this misguided costume choice and to put action to their words to support bills and policies that serve all People of Color. Asian American constituents deserve to hear that this is not acceptable for Malden. In addition to an apology, we call on Councillor Sica-Bernbaum in particular to throw her support behind policies and plans that support her immigrant, People of Color constituents right here in Malden, including but not limited to championing the city’s Language Access Plan to expand the number of languages provided by city departments and ensure that city services are accessible to all Malden residents, especially low-income immigrants and speakers of non-English languages.
Lastly, we write this letter not to pillory Councillor Sica-Bernbaum, but to urge her to reflect on the impact her actions have had, to learn about racism and the pain it causes, and to find ways to repair the public harm she has caused her neighbors, as well as her own constituents.
Signed,
Greater Malden Asian American Community Coalition (GMAACC)
Asian Community Development Corporation (ACDC)
Vietnamese American Initiative for Development (VietAID)
Chinese Progressive Political Action (CPPA)
Chinatown Community Land Trust (CCLT)
Asian American Resource Workshop (AARW)
Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center (BCNC)
Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence (ATASK)
Chinese Progressive Association Boston (CPA Boston)
Revere Youth in Action (RYIA)
Asian Pacific Islander Civic Action Network (APIs CAN!)
Chinese Culture Connection (CCC)
Malden Neighbors Helping Neighbors (MNHN)
Malden Community Organizing for Racial Equity (Malden CORE)
NAACP Mystic Valley
Paul Watanabe, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Institute of Asian American Studies, UMass Boston
South Asian Workers’ Center - Boston
Mass Senior Action Council (MSAC)