History has shown that racism bubbles up from the waters of these kinds of health crises and eventually comes to a boil and burns us all. This is not just about Asians. It’s about how we as humans default to hate and prejudice when we’re afraid and uncertain. It’s about how our knee-jerk response to seek blame and to scapegoat is detrimental to our entire society.
Jews were persecuted and held responsible for the Black Death. Immigrant Irish workers were blamed for causing cholera. Africans were shunned during the Ebola outbreak. In Pennsylvania, a 16-year-old high school soccer player was brought to tears when taunted with chants of “Ebola” from players on a rival team.
Irrational fear becomes a driver of division and discrimination. Coronavirus is only today’s vehicle.
2020 is bound to be another tough year for our country. I remain committed to doing what I can to amplify the voices of the underrepresented, to telling diverse stories in an effort to move in, and to shining a light on injustices. To that end, I pitched many new ideas, roles, and stories last year. I will keep pitching because I am passionate about this effort and optimistic that we can make progress if we persist. But we have to work together.
I’ve been talking a lot lately about how we can all be activists in our own circles whether that means within our families, work places, neighborhoods, schools, etcetera. But a friend pointed out that she’s tired of people (like me - ahem) encouraging her to “do better” without any real strategies or pointers on how to actually do that. So… my first blog post is dedicated to my friend, Lena, and intended to provide at least a starting point if you’d like to be an activist.
