Michelle Lu, Period 1, 1/05/22

Michelle Lu

Period 1

01/05/22

Modern Mythology 2022

Socio-Political Consciousness

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

I believe that issues of inequity, oppression, and power persistently exist within our

world. Especially during these past two years, the prominence of these issues became even more

apparent, which can be witnessed in the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 and

the abundance of Asian hate crimes that rose amid the pandemic. Moreover, these issues are not

just occurring within the United States. On a worldwide scale, the issues of power and inequity

can be seen in instances such as the unequal distribution of the COVID vaccine in which

developed nations have obtained the vast majority of the vaccines available while many

less-developed nations struggled to get their hands on the shots. This results in the widening of

global inequality, as well as the prolonging of the pandemic as millions to billions of people are

left susceptible to the virus. Racism and oppression are similar to a virus that is constantly

mutating, allowing it to adapt to a changing environment. Although now, racism is widely

condemned when it occurs rather than being accepted as it was in the past, it still has an

everlasting presence that has been difficult to eradicate. Additionally, I feel that these issues can

never be fully resolved as there will always be personal beliefs and prejudices that will cloud

people’s judgments, so the best thing we can do is to educate ourselves and constantly be aware

to minimize its prevalence.

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

how these can influence your perception of self and others?

Due to the differences in upbringings and experiences, everyone has their own beliefs and

values, and I certainly have mine. For me, I have always tried to be open-minded and conscious

of my mindset, not wanting to enact unacceptable behaviors or impose my belief on others.

People make assumptions all the time, whether that’s based on someone's appearance or their

actions, and those assumptions simply form in one’s mind without any effort. Because of the

ease of formulating prejudiced thoughts, I believe that rather than suppressing them, it is more

important to become aware of the effects that those thoughts could have in our surroundings and

learn how to respond to them properly. We have all thought negatively at some point in our lives.

For me, I have always felt terrible whenever I make judgments about others even if those

thoughts appear involuntarily. However, what’s important is what I do with those thoughts.

Rather than acting out on them, I focused on the fact that those are simply thoughts with no

proof.