Faith Tong Week 3: Identity in Race
Faith Tong Week 3: How does race affect our identity?
Ever since the coronavirus breakout, I have seen a lot of articles and news reporting of Asian hate and violence, especially targeting the elderly. At first, I tried to ignore it because it deeply upset me and brought back some unpleasant memories with racism. But as I continued to see the same Asian hate and violence news everyday, I couldn’t help but read more about it and try to find out the cause behind it all.
This article explains Asian hate and violence really well, and it just caused me to rethink race, identity, and environment. Since I grew up in Fremont, I would technically be considered an “American” but I never really felt like I fit in ever since I was little. My classmates would make fun of how my lunch smelled, and I remember feeling really ashamed for just eating my own culture’s food. I would try to “americanize” myself just to fit in with the rest of the kids. Many of my classmates also made racist jokes and although I knew they were joking, it still made me feel uncomfortable and ashamed of my Asian heritage. No one should have to feel ashamed or uncomfortable in their own skin.
In addition, the fact that Asian Americans feel “scared” that people would attack them physically or verbally is just a wrong mindset to have. And because of this mindset, it causes both the victims and offender to both be kept in a cycle of racism. I realized that racism won’t stop unless you stand up about it for yourself and others. Many Asian influencers spoke up about it and inspired me to continue to embrace my heritage and culture.
I also found it interesting how most people targeted the elderly. Is it because they are easy targets? That elderly person a racist person targeted could of been someone’s grandma. How would they feel if one day someone decided to attack their own grandma because of their race? The article also tells us that adults experienced verbal harassment (jokes, slurs, body language) both before and after the pandemic. The pandemic was an “excuse” for the spread of Asian hate but the statistics both before and after were quite similar. Maybe we can’t change these mentally sick and disgusting people but at least we can stand up for ourselves and our community in the meantime.
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