Why America Struggles to Move on From its Issues with Racism
one year ago
the world health organization officially
announced that the spread of coven 19
had evolved into an epidemic well today
i’m able to announce that the
coronavirus epidemic is
even worse while we have closed on
schools
shut down businesses and introduce
social distancing
the united states still ranks number one
with roughly 30 million total cases
and 500 000 total debts according to cnn
health
so traffic gone wrong as a nation
in adequate testing facilities the lack
of compliance with social distancing
and the downplaying of the dangers of
the virus by our government officials
namely former president donald trump has
exacerbated the effects of the virus
and unfortunately trump’s suggestion of
treating the virus with injection
disinfectant
is not viable evidently
this problem doesn’t just pan out with
the chronovirus epidemic
as we treat other issues such as reason
with the same mentality
as americans during the beginning stages
of the pandemic like the long passage
when in reality
they’re just getting started with harsh
miscalculation
their desire to move on to issues
without addressing them
proves problematic even
and thanks to the united states
phenomenal education system
yvonne quite the end of slavery but the
end
of racism as school textbooks erase the
history of america’s bigotry from the
long history of segregation
to the japanese and tournament camps
briefly touched in history class
the united states has long displayed
their desire to move on
without addressing its past you can say
hate crimes against asian americans have
spiked 150
from the news of the epidemic according
to nbc news
but despite the constant insistence that
this is not what america is about
its history and the realization along
place by people of color
show that racism is deeply embedded
within its identity
so let’s dust off our history books and
find out how this way of thinking has
spread
next we’ll take a look at the symptoms
of this ideal
and finally he’ll try and look for a
cure
throughout your childhood the narrative
of the american dream has been touted to
us
but what dream awaits the american who
moved to the united states in the 1850s
to pursue this narrative
ought to be viewed as perpetually
foreign to this day
a dream always african americans who
were friends with slavery 150 years ago
and yet still fight for their lives and
what dream awaits
middle eastern immigrants who are so
easily burned as terrorists spawned the
event
of 9 11. the reality is
that racism didn’t get better with the
end of slavery the civil rights movement
are even the election of obama’s present
and yet we often complete these small
victories with races being solved
psychologists asking robertson explains
that when it comes to problem solving
humans often expect there to be an angle
to be met
we evaluate and simplify issues so it’s
solution to be selected
this makes it problematic for when we as
humans
try and solve an issue as systemic as
racism which cannot simply
simply be solved through one-off
solutions
so we turn to denial a 2018 poll
conducted by the economist showed that
40 of white americans believed that
black people would be as successful as
whites if they simply
tried harder ignoring the policies like
jim crow
and the redlining that create
generations of poverty that still affect
minorities to this day
and there’s a tragedy revealing that
america’s white supremacy is still alive
only here this is not what america is
about
but we must acknowledge how america
called the
nazis imprisonment of jews horrific
while forcing japanese americans
into internment camps we must
acknowledge how
america deployed the military during
black lives matter protests
and yet none of the reading of the white
house by rival rifle-carrying writers
and we must acknowledge how america
and we must acknowledge how a white
man’s bad day
results in the talking of asian rhyme
businesses the deaths of
six asian women because when we spent
decades covering up for your country’s
past while spending no time addressing
it
it becomes part of the country’s present
they say time kills all wounds but when
you don’t properly address one
hit confessor today we see these wounds
manifested in the conflicts between
white people and people of color the
increased attacks on asian americans
as well as to rejuvenate interest in
white supremacy groups
such as the proud boys and although
our former president played a large role
in examining these issues
they’ve always been there the survey
conducted by the
pw research center in june 2020 explains
that
78 of asian americans as well as
african-americans as well as 58 of
hispanics
reported they experienced racial
discrimination
with asians being the most likely to be
subjected to racial slurs
and with the history we’ve made with
tamala harris as the first
elected female and black vice president
you must not forget that there is much
work
to be done you must avoid moving on from
issues once
we perceive that progress has been made
replied
with the black lives matter protests in
the summer of 2020
when many people simply post the black
score on instagram
hashtagging black out tuesday and
calling enough activism for the day
because only when we’ve stopped to
acknowledge the festering wounds
the systemic racism will we be able to
start taking actions to treat it
in the second grade i moved from a
really small town in kansas to a really
recent part of oklahoma
called oklahoma growing up in oklahoma
high experiencing a lot of racial
discrimination and when i tried to tell
the adults around me about this issue as
experiencing
it often downplayed saying that racial
was prevalent everywhere and that i just
needed to grow their skin
same issue occurred when i tried to tell
my asian peers about this problem
they tell me that they experienced the
same risk as well
but they ignored and told me that i
should too
as a community asian americans have
learned to keep their head down
and move on when fixing discrimination
according to nbc news while a quarter of
asian americans reported that they’ve
experienced racial discrimination
plain quarter responded that they’d be
comfortable reporting to law enforcement
and that needs to change not only has
conforming to the stereotype
that we are not confrontational
resulting as being more easily targeted
places are most vulnerable that have
targets on their backs
nbc news reports that of the 2600 hate
crimes reported from february 2020
to march 2021 68
have been women many being elders
as a communi asian amer we must
start speaking up when our friends try
to pass off a racist comment as a joke
we need to start speaking up when the
boy scene next to us pulls the corners
of his eyes back
and we need to start speaking up when
our friends and family are being beat on
the streets
because while unlimited silence i’ve
been taught
has been an uphill battle the small
difference i made
when i decided to stop ignoring the
racism around me was
worth it what i learned from that was
that
my journey towards progress will never
be over
and that is okay
as a society let’s rewrite our
relationship with progress
first when it comes to issues such as
racism progress will not be linear
sometimes we will get stuck and fall
back
our journey towards progress is a room
full of twists and turns
ups and downs and that is okay
as long as we continue to move forward
what is important
is that we acknowledge these issues
don’t deny them instead of work
the problem because denying the problem
exists only makes it easier
for people to get hurt by them second
we must realize that doing one good
thing and no we need somewhere out of
the woods
but not out of the woods because of the
history we made with kamala harris
obama’s presidency we’re even posting
black score on instagram
single moment of success does not mean
that
the problem is over and that we can
simply move on with their lives
because the truth is issues as in
greatest reason will never completely
disappear
since time we accept that now
realizing accepting that our fight
against systemic wisdom
might never be over does not mean that
things when things will never get better
but that we must stay visually even when
things start to look up
we must ignore we must stop ignoring
our problems instead they still head on
like then we truly be able to have
progress
thank you
[Applause]