Great piece and I am happy that the responses so far have been thoughtful and generally positive. I think what we all need to remember is that we all have a common enemy: white supremacy. And when we band together to fight that enemy, we're stronger.

(And while I'm at it, I want to clarify that I said white supremacy, not white people. I think white supremacy can hurt white people too, but that's a discussion for another time.)

I think another reason why Asians have been less visible is that we are relative newcomers to North America (in relation to everyone else) and there are fewer of us.

Yet another reason is the patterns of immigration. I read about this recently, don't remember the source but the gist is that the model minority myth only came about in the last generation or two, when Asian migrants started coming based on skilled visas. Of course we're more "model" if most of us were handpicked. Many of the model minority type immigrants we see today were already privileged in their country of origin.

I also have a suspicion that more privileged Asians, such as those in the medicine/finance/engineering etc. sectors, are less likely to take on activism. Perhaps because they don't want to put their careers in jeopardy, perhaps they don't witness enough suffering to feel like they need to fight, but that might answer why Asian activism was more apparent in the early 20th century.

Finally, I find it funny that other people think we want to be white. My first-generation elders, at least, would NEVER want to be white! In fact, in the old country, white people are kinda seen as undesirable barbarians lol. Of course, that is problematic (no one should be seen as a savage), but it's just kinda funny to me...