Rachel Yang, Period 7, 1/20/22

Rachel Yang Period 7 1/19/22


Socio-political Consciousness
42nd Street Subway Station??? That’s the station my mom gets off for work… 40 year old Asian woman??? That description described my mom… 9 A.M…. That’s around the time my mom gets to work….


Without even clicking and reading more into the news I was terrified that the victim of another hate crime was my own mother . As Asian American hate crime rates rose since the beginning of the pandemic back in 2020, anxiety among Asian American families like mine have been higher than ever before. From the constant stories of Asian elders being attacked in broad daylight to the recent homicide of Michelle Go, these cruel attacks have constantly made headlines in the daily news, urging the community to help put an end to these crimes. Since the pandemic has begun, occurrences of oppression and imbalance of power have been prevalent when it came to Asian hate crimes and the justice served. Asians were constantly being blamed because some believed that we were the reasons as to why Covid happened. This irrational fear would eventually lead to the devastating crimes that have been plastered on the front pages of the media all while many of these attacks were being excused as not a form of hate crime by the police. It wasn’t until the increased media attention brought people together, demanding change that progress was finally starting to be made.

However, racism against the Asian American community has always been present, it has always just been normalized. Growing up as an Asian American, I constantly experienced the microaggressions, slurs, and racist jokes that people would tell me or others around me. The normalization of such acts led me to constantly overlook the issues with such statements. From being told things like “Aren’t you supposed to be smart you’re Asian” to “You have double eyelids? I thought all Asians had small monolids.” I ended up getting used to the microaggressions, never speaking up against them. As I’ve grown older though, I realized the harm that the normalization of racism against Asian Americans has caused in our society which further motivated me to learn about these issues.


How do you reflect critically on your own beliefs, assumptions, values, and experiences, and how these can influence your perception of self and others?

Everyone has their own beliefs depending on the way they grew up and their environment. I believe that oftentimes we are exposed to racial bias at a young age causing some bias to subconsciously stay with us as we continue to mature and educate ourselves on the reality around us. However, I believe that acknowledging the presence of such internalized bias is crucial in everyone’s journey as we work to stay open minded and help form a better society. Personally, one way I’ve been working on this is through further education on racism within all minority communities. Whether it’s through listening to the first hand experiences from the community itself to learning to embrace the beauty of all cultures, I’ve continued to work on my goal to help improve the social culture in society. Although racism is not a simple problem for us to fix, constant effort, no matter how big or small, will help gradually reduce racism in the community.