Stanley Zhou, 3/22/21, Period 5, Day B

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?

In recent news, hate crime towards Asian Americans has been on the rise as seen in countless media outlets providing graphic videos and images of the victims in distress. During this pandemic, I have been locked away from public areas for the most part for my safety from the virus. Never once did it cross my mind that as we are fighting this virus would we also have to fight against this inequality tied to our culture. As an Asian American, I have firsthand experience of racial slurs being thrown at me but it can easily be brushed off. However, the images of Asian Americans on these news outlets showing bloodied and bruised faces is not something we can simply brush off. I am in disbelief that on top of the toll that the pandemic has put us on, there is still inequality on the streets and people looking down on others for whatever their motive may be. 

The other day, my father sat down with me for a talk. During the conversation, he explained that he was fearing for the safety of our family in public areas. Both my parents work full-time jobs which include interacting with a patient/client respectively. Fearing for the safety of our family, my father supplied us with items in self-defense. I can't believe that it has come to a point where hard-working people have to live in fear of who knows what will happen at any time in a public space due to their background. 

After watching an Asian American professional basketball player, Jeremy Lin, speak up, I took some time to ponder about what I could do to help my community and bring about change. It does comfort me that these events have sparked many Asian Americans to speak up and demand change which brings awareness and that is pretty much all we can do as it is extremely difficult to change a person's preconceived notions on a specific race as they are entitled to their own beliefs. I believe people like Jeremy Lin are leading change in the right direction by voicing their disappointment and I hope for more influencers to bring light to these issues and spread awareness and hopefully bring about change as this is not something that will change overnight.