Racism is Everywhere… Yes, Literally Everywhere
As the news about racism during COVID-19 in the US recently caused the rise of solidarity in the Asian-American community, the concern about the issue finally floated on the surface. How does this keep happening? What can we do to stop it?
Not only do we have a big change in our life after the new virus came, but we also have to deal with many problems that followed after that. At the beginning of 2020, after the big celebration of the alteration between the years, people have received the surprise gift that was waiting to be their intimate company for the whole year; a mask — I mean the virus, but yes, a mask also the biggest part of this.
The year passed with people struggling throughout the months; adapting to the new regulation in the country, such as wearing a mask every time they have to go out to the public, shopping online has never been so essential as last year, also the closing of the school building led students to pass their semester by just sitting in front of their devices.
The news about the disease is spreading like the virus itself. The first record of the case infected a human was from Wuhan, China. Within a week, many articles, videos, messages are spread widely with no filter, especially on social media.
I remember when my friend handed me her phone and revealed a video circulated on every social media platform. It showed a scene when many people in China collapse one by one in a public place. It was indeed like watching a cutscene from a Resident Evil game. My thought was the world would turn to be like every plot in that game since it was terrifying and uncanny. However, strangely, after the first wave spread around the world, there was nothing like those scenes (I mean in different countries), so it must be something else that caused those footages of Chinese collapses on the street. I assumed those videos were assembled from different times. When it compiles in one video, in general, people would believe it instantly. It’s viral, new, and obviously entertaining (who have time to investigate further about it anyway). The other reason that I could think of is perhaps those videos were not because of the Coronavirus; it could be from a different disease.
The Virus That Spreading is Not Only COVID-19!
Apart from all the hustle and bustle of COVID-19, racism suddenly becomes more personal to some people after the pandemic situation’s uninvited entrance. Then here we go, the massive wave of people believe that every Chinese have this virus on their body, and if you see one of them, you will have two options; flee or fight. I’m not only talking about people in western countries since I believe this mindset would be in every (irrational) person’s head.
At this point, every Asian who is from China or looks similar to the Chinese characteristic — definitely, the Asian community, especially East Asian who lives abroad, has an uncomfortable state in public.
The case that brings out to the world attention is the treatment the Asian-Americans get from certain US people. According to the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism CSUSB, anti-Asian hate crime in America’s largest cities increased to 149% in 2020 based on an analysis of official preliminary police data.
Presumably, one of the reasons is because the former US President plainly mentioned the new virus as the “Chinese Virus” at the beginning of its emergence. This is also the output of the competition between the US and China in the trade war, also the hatred and prejudice that have existed for a long time. It just needs a motive and blessing from the authority to finally release the sticky dark hate that nested for a long time inside and vent it towards the one that has always been an outsider. Many records of this bad expression spreading on the internet as the CBS Evening News post on their YouTube channel;
They are blatantly showing their hate towards minorities, and they also target a weak minority that they can find— how brave are they!
However, I could say that those cases are irony. As we can recall from the last year about the Black Lives Matter Movements, it asserts the meaning of African-American solidarity and the demand for equality. It was sparked because of George Floyd’s death by the Police, and other similar cases burst out following the hype. It was a great movement that causes many celebrities to show their support by putting the BLM hashtags on their social media campaign. However, the movement is completely misunderstood by significant people thinking that BLM is about one race only, and it lost its meaning completely.
We can not forget about other racism cases that afflict other races like Arab after the twin tower attack in 2001. It was a nightmare for the middle east people. They received bad treatment and stereotypes until now. If we step back in time until WWII, you can see the brutality of Nazi to Jewish people. It was bad, horrible. I know religious hate crime a bit different, but the root is the same — difference.
It was also happening in the Asia continent, an interesting case that happens in the entertainment area. Even if Lisa from the Blackpink (Korean girl band) has many fans worldwide, there is still the dislike that came from the South Korean K-Pop fans since she is from Thailand. There is a racist thing that conventional in East and Southern Asia about skin color, which is the whiter your skin, the prettiest you are. There is still a stereotype that dark skin means you are poor.
The cases above are the only examples of what we are dealing with in today’s society. We attack each other because of our differences — shouting about equality, but here we are witnessing the biggest hypocrisy in the entire world. I don’t want to put hatred on a certain race, but let us agree that the villain here is stupidity and ignorance.
The More You Learn, The More You Realize
Before I write furthermore regarding racism, it is better to talk about human instinct first. Like all the animal, human also has instinct. If we reflect for a while, the variety of animal species and how they look different even if they are from the same species, it will make us realize that the climate and the place where they live are the reason behind it. We can also see the remaining of every animal ancestor’s look different from the animal we see nowadays. This is what we call evolution.
It is also happening in our species. We are homo sapiens or humans as a term that we use in general. Paleontologist has discovered that we change remarkably for all these years. We should be aware that the first continent where humans were originated is Africa. As the curiosity undertook our exploring blood, we decided to travel to another part of the land and discovered that there were so many places that we can choose to settle down.
There is a colder place than the others, and there is a warmer than the other. However, we survive and adapt to the place that we stay. Slowly in every generation, our body changes, adjusting to the condition. And one of the changes is our skin.
In this new place, we build civilization, the culture-shifting with every technology and item that we obtain and invented. We create new rules according to where we live, and we evolve as time goes by. As we settle down, living comfortably in our land, we assume that we are the only civilization in the world until we meet the other that looks different. We are afraid — we are worried. After all, they are aliens in our eyes.
Even though society is changing to become more cooperative and comprehend new things and new environment, that thinking (others are aliens) still exists until these days. We are still afraid that ‘different’ societies would take our land. We are still worried that they will destroy our society. These kinds of anxiety turn to be loathed and reluctance to accept other people that look different. It is getting worse when this group of people gather and provoke each other to act and finally do the worse things humans can do to others.
Can We Change?
Yes, we can!
How?
It will be hard to lift this case in the individual shoulder since it is not a new problem and not only in one part of the world. This is a societal problem. We have to help each other — cooperate with one another. Realizing that we can not choose where we want to be born and change our race and physical appearance that easily. There is still hope, like yin and yang, or black and white, there will be people that are against racism. We should gather together and share this message everywhere. Teach the young to respect each other, give them the example of the rainbow that will not be complete and look amazing without all of its different colors.
As technology becomes easier and sophisticated each year, we should use this as a weapon to fight racism. If we stumble upon the racist act in progress and we are in the bystander position, we should interrupt, not just stand and be silent.
However, there will be a case where it’s too risky to interfere. We can use our smartphones to record and keep it as evidence. Not only that, we can call the police and shout to the perpetrator that you already call the authority in a case that the victim is in critical condition.
Just remember this wise quote; crime doesn’t occur because of bad people only, but also because of good people’s silence.
Share this message to generate the spirit of the fight against inequality.