Alice Wei, Period 1, 1/19/22

Alice Wei, Period 1, 1/19/22

Modern Mythology 2022

What are your thoughts and feelings about issues of inequity, oppression, and/or power?

I definitely feel like oppression and issues of power have been more prominent recently due to

the pandemic. It has revealed sides of people and society that we might’ve never seen otherwise.

COVID-19 has directly led to the rise of Asian hate crimes and racism within my community

that originate from personal beliefs and stereotypes. People saw the news of the virus being

linked to ‘bat soup’ in the media and ran with it without the statement being confirmed by

scientists. Yet, the Asian American community was deemed as the cause of the virus, and

became a punching bag of sorts for others to take their frustrations out on. Oftentimes my mom

would urge me to wear sunglasses when I leave the house so that I can hide my ‘asian’ eyes and

avoid being the target of a hate crime. Remaining objective is the best way to ensure that our

own personal beliefs don’t seep in and ruin our judgement. Taking a step back to evaluate our

thinking before acting upon them is important in society so that we can avoid applying our biases

to other people.

How do you reflect critically on your own beliefs, assumptions, values, and experiences,

and how can these influence your perception of self and others?

I believe that our own beliefs and experiences have led us to forming our biases early on in life.

However, as we grow older and get exposed to more experiences, we will realize that these

biases are sometimes not true, or even completely false. This is the importance of remaining

open-minded. If we continue to apply our beliefs to every scenario, then oppression will worsen,

and the hate crimes will continue. I’m certainly guilty of having my own biases, but rarely would

I ever feel the need to speak out on them. Whenever they’re proved wrong, it feels enlightening,

because it feels like I’m learning more about the world. Until last year, I’ve always had the

notion that mint chocolate ice cream tastes like toothpaste after trying the Haagen-Dazs version.

But when I ate the Ben and Jerry’s version for the first time, I completely changed my mind.

Although this example is a stark contrast to racism and oppression, it demonstrates a time when

my bias proved to be wrong. I’ve learned to not hold my perceptions as truth, so as to not assume

anything of anyone without all the facts.