Jenny Cheung 4/5/2021 PD 2, Day A (Late)

 Socio-political Consciousness

What are your thoughts and feelings about issues of inequity, oppression, and/or power?

With the large discussions around being around APIA hate right now, inequity, oppression, and/or power are at the forefront of my mind right now. Asian hate has been normalized for many years in America because of the model minority myth used to put down other minorities and cultural sterotypes and fetishization of Asians. With the large movement happening, I fear that it will lose steam eventually because of the long rooted erasure of Asian struggles but I hope that it won't. There also is the problem about minorities being pited against each other as some people use the excuse that many BIPOC are the arbiters of hate crimes being committed against the APIA community but it distracts from the discussion of how the general discussion of struggle for equality many minorities face. It also furthers demonizes other BIPOC. 

To connect it to our unit in class, I feel like I understand Grendel more on a personal level. Like the dragon opening up Grendel's eyes, there has always been a shift in the exposure of APIA inequality and the dragon personifies the breaking point that happened a few weeks ago. The dragon symbolizes nihilism and can be an allusion to the Bible's snake but in a contemporary sense, the dragon is just a culmination of events like hate crimes intensifying. 

How do you reflect critically on your own beliefs, assumptions, values, and experiences, and how these can influence your perception of self and others?

While everyone operates under different beliefs and hold their own views, how they affect our interactions with others is what is important. Sometimes, these values and assumptions can harm or hurt others, so it is important to retrospect on them. To reflect critically, you can look at how your views may be seen by other people. Put yourself in their shoes, and walk a mile in them. Peoples' beliefs, assumptions, values and experiences also affect how they perceive the world. Our experiences shape our views and everyone has different experiences and may never fully understand one another, and it's important to think about how your values and others' affect each other.

My personal views and experiences change often (as most other teenagers also experience), and I constantly challenge them by asking questions. A day, week, or month later, I may have an experience where my beliefs are challenged and I ask myself if I still stand by them or if they have changed at all. It's important to reflect on your perceived notions of the world, to truly grow.