May 16, 2021
Empower Yourself to See Humans as Cultural Assets, Not Burdens
Can you right the wrong?
Based in various countries overseas for a large part of my adult life, I am better able to see home situations from different angles, particularly as my family is multi-cultured. I often question the wisdom of returning to the US if the toxic atmosphere from the past few years does not improve. But then who am I to rob family of roots and home? Having experienced the trauma of dislocation multiple times, I do not underestimate the emotional challenges of moving across continents.
All these lead to a thought — who vested power in a few politicians to lord over our lives?
Toxicity harms most when least expected. The CNN article identifying White supremacy for the recent round of Asian-hate is alarming. Not only because of CNN’s reiteration of false Asian American female stereotypes in the latter part of the article, and not that White supremacy is not at fault —it is, as the Atlanta murders rightly hammer into American conscience — but focusing on White supremacy alone as the culprit steers us away from total truth.
Clearly, there are no lack of reports and examples of videos circulating around the world showing non-White people agitating and assaulting Asian Americans, whether before or after the Atlanta atrocity. Perpetuation of racial hate is not limited to one race, often with different undertones. Its demonic arm directs at the Other.
Political activists are quick to gather energy for assigned agendas and labels, intended to benefit victims, yet it could happen at the cost of distorting the true picture necessary for ultimate healing. Activists are doing an outstanding job bringing to the fore hate crimes on Asian Americans since 2020. But I need to highlight attacking the other is not limited to differences in colors of skin or hair. While this may not be the most popular view, it’s worth checking out.
The term People of Color (POC) is problematic to begin with. Stop using it, I implore you. It’s a peculiarly offensive American (and British) term which lumps together unique ethnicities, ignoring both blatantly different cultures and various nuances among groups of broader races.
Never mind different color groups, as the term POC supposes, I assure you not many Asians in Asia see themselves as persons of color. Why? Asians in Asia ARE the majority. In fact, every human skin has a color, yes even White people. Instead of uniting, do we see how the term People of Color pits one big group against another big group as Other?
Take colors off the focus. Look for universal values, please. Heritage of human progress is not linear. Just as not one race, civilization or religion is totally guilt-free of persecution and violence in history, we develop from the good of many. Asian cultures, histories and family values are very relevant in the modern world, as are Greco-Roman and African cultures. We ignore these relations at our own peril.
See humans as cultural assets, not burdens.
Critics are quick to point to Covid-19’s place of first discovery. That is despite scientific research showing the first and most subsequent cases in New York, an early epicenter of the pandemic, are actually strains that came in from Europe, not Asia or Asians.
If fellow Americans were not blinded by racial bias, realization of necessary early prevention on all fronts might have come soon enough — instead of attacking Asians wearing masks. When did any of the mask-wearing, assaulted Asian American women and men first harm the attacker? Oh yes, silent onlookers are guilty.
Education starts at infant stage and charity starts from home. If adults consciously stop behaving in manners like putting a falsely protective arm around a child at the sight of an ethnically different person, it helps. The focus then rightly goes to what the other person is doing, rather than the ethnicity.
In the days before the internet, we traveled to know more about unfamiliar communities. We read books we chose to quench our thirst from curiosity, in the same way that open minded people seek the company of natives when in foreign lands. Since the internet happened, algorithms target isolated aspects of users to amplify and force-feed selective information to humans, reinforcing views that are not whole.
The trouble is, those who read articles like this are likely not the problem. How do we reach those who don’t? I appeal to tech people: Algorithms reinforce xenophobia in more ways than we realize. As the short correspondence with Algorithm points out, these retroactive robotic actions bring to internet users narrow fields of vision, acting as blindfolds to the real, diverse world. In this sense, the world is worse off than the days of yore — but this can change.
I am no technocrat. Distributing diverse information as a course of education and healing — despite commercial pandering — will have to be the job for conscientious tech giants or savvy individuals. Get to task if you can.
Celebrating the other is key. Enjoy different cultures at their best.
Seu
© PseuPending 2021
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