By Jack Gluckman
On March 16, 2021, Robert Aaron Long visited three Asian-owned spa parlors in the Atlanta area and killed eight people.
The motivation behind the attacks was his alleged “sex addiction” that was at odds with his Christianity. Long’s murder of eight people, six of whom were Asian women, was chalked up to being a “really bad day” by the Cherokee County Sheriff’s spokesperson Jay Baker.
The grim reality is the Western view of Asian women as objects of sexual desire stretches back to the early days of Asian immigration to the United States.
This started with the Page Act of 1875, which banned the immigration of Chinese women to the United States due to the assumption that they were immigrating with the intent to become prostitutes.
The sexualization of Asian women continued through the multiple American wars in Asia as American GIs were allowed to bring their exotic brides home.
This leads to the reality that the commonly used expression “love you long time” is rooted in the sexualization of Asian women.
The phrase originates from the 1987 Vietnam War film “Full Metal Jacket,” with the full line being “Me so horny. Me love you long time.” The line was said by a Vietnamese prostitute as she tries to propose sex work to American soldiers. The now infamous movie quote has transcended the silver screen and made its way into society, with one of its most notable usages coming from Fergie’s 2006 hit “London Bridge.”
To highlight in a more modern sense how the phrase has permeated society is in the widespread usage on posts highlighting friendships. Countless times I have scrolled through Snapchat and Instagram and seen those four words in broken English, always wondering if the original posters have any idea how detrimental the phrase is to the Asian community.
Those four words have such a profound meaning, and like many other phrases and expressions in the American vernacular there are often little understanding to their origins. I call upon all my fellow Susquehanna students to do better, to further educate yourselves on the issue and to stop using the phrase because if you really “love us long time” you will acknowledge the harm those four little words have inflicted upon the Asian community.
