Riya Varghese, PD8, 5/6/2021, Day C

Riya Varghese

Period 8-Day C

Modern Mythology

05/05/21

Social Issues:

 I remember thinking back in January that 2020 was going to be my year. My family had plans to move this year, to celebrate my birthday in 2 months, and to finally watch me graduate as a senior! In my perspective, everything in the world was perfect. However, the reality was that the virus was spreading globally, shootings occurred in 66 schools, and rising war tensions between the US and Iran were in the public eye. To me, New York was always “the city that never sleeps” and America was always “the land of opportunity”.  A land of free will and equal opportunity after years of civil unrest, at least that’s what I thought until now.

Even though New York is one of the most diverse states in America and a melting pot of various cultures, I had grown up in a bubble believing everyone was equal. This year popped that bubble of belief and unexpectedly placed me on a path to self enlightenment. My newfound state went against all those years of growing up acting like a generic American with no individuality. A person who was taught to say sorry to those who were doing an injustice against us, to put our head down if we ever saw a fight to prove our uninvolvement, and finally to focus on oneself and ignore the world around us.

It came as a shock to me that I had been following these model citizenship rules until one day we experienced discrimination. Imagine walking into a phone network store, you’re just there because you want to switch a phone plan. The minute you walk in you’re overwhelmed with the radio music in the background of all the disorder. People are speed walking back and forth, phones are ringing waiting to be picked up, and the paperwork seems to be piling up during this rush hour. Finally, the rush slightly clears up when they call you over but as a new customer, changing your plan takes excruciatingly long. You’re still hearing all the paperwork going, people zooming past when suddenly it becomes white noise in your head when another customer comes up to the register that you were standing at to remark “I know English is hard but can you seriously hurry up, there are others waiting on you!” The associate snaps her head around in utter disbelief, she had waited for less than 5 minutes and hadn’t even been the next person in line. Sadly, that was my reality but the worst part of it all was my dad’s accepting behavior of it as he replied, “I’m sorry for taking so long, it’ll take a few more moments”. The sales associate, noticing our discomfort, quickly finished up and let us go.

After a long period of silence in the car, I mustered up the courage to ask my dad why he had done that. He replied saying that we were taking up a lot of time and that it was better not to cause a scene that we would get blamed for in the end. I had almost thought the logic was reasonable until the sales associate called back and asked if we wished to report the impatient customer for racially profiling us. 

After the disgust and discomfort I felt, I decided to abandon that mindset and decided to delve deeper into what I could do to make my dad to never go through a similar experience. I found students, kids older and younger than me, starting initiatives and organizations that raised awareness for minorities. Showing my initiative, I signed many petitions, found movements I could stand by, posted them on social media and shared with many of my friends and family. The more involved I got, the more passion burned; I had hope that my family and hopefully others would never have to feel discriminated against ever again, and to play a part in the movement. It shocked me how much people could relate and how little attention it was getting, for all I knew this would have just been an everyday occurrence in my loved ones’ lives. So to provide a safer, secure tomorrow for my friends, family, myself and maybe one day my kids, I decided to keep fighting for a more equal lifestyle, and rather than feeling judged by our differences, I hoped that we could learn how to celebrate them.

One organization that I discovered fairly recently that represents my ideals is the Asian Americans for Equality. It is a non-profit organization based in New York City advocating for racial, social and economic justice for Asian Americans and other systematically disadvantaged communities(http://www.aafny.org/). With this organization and others, I hope that although 2020 may have not been my year, I can still create a change alongside my community, friends and family towards advancing equality and respect against this social injustice that we currently face in years to come.