Celina Lin, 04/20/2021, Period 8, Day C

Celina Lin

Pd 8 04/15/2020 Day C Modern Mythology 2021

Socio-political Consciousness What are your thoughts and feelings about issues of inequity, oppression, and/or power? How do you reflect critically on your own beliefs, assumptions, values, and experiences, and how these can influence your perception of self and others? Ever since the start of the pandemic, there have been many cases of inequity and oppression. Personally, I’ve not been so involved as in I never took the opportunity to research about what exactly was going on out in the real world. I was trying to cope with school and work. But, it was not until recently that videos and news articles have been popping up on my recommendation lists and on social media. There has been a surge in Asian hate crimes in different areas in the U.S. and it’s still shocking to me to know there are such people out there that could commit such brutal acts to innocent people. Just yesterday, the Senate came down to a vote of 92-6 to enforce legislation that would help strengthen federal efforts to address hate crimes. I believe that discrimination and violence against any minority communities is unnecessary and is never needed. Especially at times like this, such actions would only cause people to be in constant fear and distress. With the rise of hate crimes lately, it has affected me a lot personally. My curfew has been pushed back way earlier than usual. I am not allowed to go anywhere except work. And even after work, I have to head straight home. I have become a lot more self-aware of my surroundings and cautious of people around me. Prior to the pandemic, I usually tend to go on my phone a lot on buses and trains because I never had to worry about “safety.” I was probably more worried about missing my stop. But, nowadays, I start getting intimidated when strangers come up to me and start talking to me. I am scared for my own safety as I head home from work and I think this shouldn’t really be a thing. I really don’t think that my parents have to worry about me being outside at 2 p.m. I have not seen my parents in such emotional distress about things happening to Asian Americans to the point where they think it’s necessary to carry around self defense items. That’s when I realize things have changed greatly since the start of the pandemic and I would really hope things to return to prior to the pandemic.