Felicia Chan, 3/24/2021, Period 2, Day A

Felicia Chan

3/24/2021

Period 2

Modern Mythology

We are accustomed to feeling a sense of pride and honor when we face the flag that represents our country, with our hands placed on our hearts, to repeat the Pledge of Allegiance ending with, “... one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” 

Indivisible. Liberty. Justice. These three words that we should so proudly say each day does not hold true for the America I am living in today. 

There is no doubt that inequity and oppression have been around since the establishment of our nation. Xenophobia is a disease that continues to make its way in infecting and spreading hate through humans, who by nature are supposed to form a unity with one another. We know its presence, but society for so long has suppressed its screams through the dead silence of those who have been targetted and violently killed due to their race. It angers me how it always seems to take a massacre or enough innocent people to be killed for these issues to gain the proper attention it needs from the public and our political leaders to act on them. And when these things do happen, there are always less severe penalties or excuses such as “having a bad day” to dismiss the white men of their crimes. But when it comes to people of color, there is no need for questioning where to point fingers. 

Like many others, I have also experienced hate from others due to the color of my skin. There are countless instances in the school environment where my classmates will come up to me to mock my language, shout racial slurs, and poke fun at the food I ate for lunch. And every time, they would cover their hurtful actions by pretending it to be a “friendly joke” that I shouldn’t take so seriously. Though I would frequently force a fake smile and have my head held low to avoid any unwanted attention, each of their words and “jokes” were a painful hit on my pride of being an Asian-American. And throughout the years, I have grown to become embarrassed of my Chinese background, shielding my authentic self from the world to feel “accepted.” 

However, with current movements like Black Lives Matter and Stop Asian Hate, and social media, I can witness how people like me are standing up for themselves against inequity and oppression. Platforms and protests like these are allowing people of color to unite and giving them the opportunity to courageously speak out about these flaws of our country. It is initiating and igniting the changes and actions we need to make in order to create a nation that is said to be in our Pledge of Allegiance. Also, being in quarantine for almost a year has provided me ample time to grow out of that insecure and ashamed younger self. I was able to reconnect with my roots by spending more time with my grandparents to relearn my native language and customs. 

With all the current events happening around, it has encouraged me to embrace my role as an Asian-American to use my voice to help people like my parents and grandparents, who are immigrants, to express their anger that society is unable to understand because of the language barrier and translate it to words that the whole country can hear.