Text Review: The Shadow Whose Prey the Hunter Becomes

The Shadow Whose Prey the Hunter Becomes is a play in a form of public speaking and conversations with AI and humans. This play is about how society treats disabled people with injustice and stereotypes and how every human being will be treated in the future with advanced technology. It discusses human rights, the power of words, and the social impact of automation.

What are the proper ways for “the normal people” to treat the disabled? In addition, how will we be treated in the future if artificial intelligence dominates the world? The play The Shadow Whose Prey the Hunter Becomes starts with the five figures setting up a town hall meeting in front of a black computer screen hanging on the backside of the state. Their stories of how people treat them unfairly because of their disability and think they are uneducated and stupid followed by the topic of how will people be treated when A.I. overtakes humans. A good reference in the play is this line, “like how we treat chicken or people with disability?” The injustice started when “normality” rules out the minorities because of any kind of difference. The ending of the play and its message to the audience is meaningful. Most people will go through struggles to be understood, stigmatized by others with low expectations sometimes in their lives. However, we need to speak for ourselves even if others highlight our limit, which is totally not true.

This play is truly wonderful and I had the chance to watch it myself. Before I always feel sorry for people with disabilities because society has told us that we need to be grateful for what we have right now because some people don’t even have them. After watching the play, I realize this is wrong. Disabled people don’t need our pity. They want respect and dignity like every other human being on this planet. Instead of thinking of the disability as a tragedy, some of them think it is a gift that makes them special. This play taught me about individual responsibility to keep our society way from injustice for any reasons, race, age, income, or disability.

Diary of Systemic Injustices SHOWCASE: Discriminatory ICE Restrictions on International Students in the United States

Due to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, many international students flew back to their home countries in March when American colleges announced that the rest of the spring classes would be conducted online, including me. Take OSU as an example. Not only the spring semester, but also the summer semester became fully online regarding the safety of students and staff, which allowed international students to study in their home countries.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fasia.nikkei.com%2FSpotlight%2FCoronavirus%2FOverseas-Chinese-flock-home-as-coronavirus-blankets-the-West&psig=AOvVaw0DNUtiNitLEbljFvdj9NVf&ust=1603673369268000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCMCx3a3DzuwCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD 

Since I’m a Chinese student, I would like to talk about the dilemma that many Chinese students encountered over the past summer. For China specifically due to the travel ban and limited flights to the US, it is very difficult and risky to return back to OSU in the fall. America has the largest number of confirmed cases of COVID and China is almost clear. It is very unwise for me to return. However, on July 8, 2020, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced new restrictions on international students who take fully online classes in the fall could not remain in the US legally, in other words, their visa would be terminated. The new restrictions not only affect students who were in America at that time, but also students who decided not to return in the fall since the visa status would be invalid. This means that I may not be able to go back to the US even when the pandemic ends because there is a chance that I can’t get a new student visa again. 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.firstcoastnews.com%2Farticle%2Fnews%2Feducation%2Fice-orders-international-students-to-leave-the-country-if-only-taking-online-classes%2F77-887bf854-5ae8-450b-ab49-7fe84de0b403&psig=AOvVaw2ssRawTnhBtZXxKAXouiHe&ust=1603673291770000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCKDZ2IvDzuwCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD 

This is totally unfair for the US government to put a ban on all international students. It discriminates against our nationality and identity. International students go to study in the US legally and our rights should not be violated in this way. Luckily, Harvard and MIT, backed up by more than 200 colleges, sued ICE and won the case. The restrictions were rescinded after one week they were announced; therefore, I can take this class while in China now. 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bostonglobe.com%2F2020%2F07%2F14%2Fmetro%2Fharvard-mit-argue-foreign-student-ban-will-harm-universities-public-health%2F&psig=AOvVaw2ssRawTnhBtZXxKAXouiHe&ust=1603673291770000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCIinuKrDzuwCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAK 

This reminds me of the concept of the subaltern by Spivak, which refers to the people who “can’t speak”. Although it can mean literally muted, most of the time it refers to people whose voice is not heard by society due to their social status. International students are not American citizens, thus many of their rights are not as secured as American citizens. For example, international students were taught during their orientation that when the police stop you when driving, put hands on the wheel so that they wouldn’t think you try to reach for a gun. African Americans told their children the same thing. However, white parents never need to tell their children that. This simple story shows how different races are treated differently in America. 

 

Quintana, Chris. “College student visa: Trump admin bars new foreign students taking online classes in the US.” USA TODAY, Jul. 25, 2020, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2020/07/24/college-student-visa-ice-trump-covid-rule/5504422002/. Accessed Oct. 24, 2020. 

 

Context Research Presentation Week 8

The story of The Leavers is about the story of an illegal immigrant from China and her forced abandoned child because she was caught working illegally in American and got deported back to China. Her son was adopted by an American family and combining the facts that his adopted family lives in a white-dominant neighborhood, Deming has a hard time finding his identity. This is a normal problem for all adopted kids, even worse when the children are quite different from the adopted family or being adopted fairly late. Deming was adopted when he was six so he remembered the time with his biological mother. This story is not unique to Polly and Deming.

Right now, there are fewer illegal Chinese immigrants in the United States due to the fact that China is rapidly developing, and the American dream doesn’t sound so promising anymore. However, other countries such as Mexico have a fair number of illegal immigrants crossing the border every day. “U.S. immigration authorities separated more than 1,500 children from their parents at the Mexico border early in the Trump administration, the American Civil Liberties Union said Thursday, bringing the total number of children separated from July 2017 to more than 5,400” (More than 5,400 children split at the border, according to new count). These families are forced to separate. The children who were born as American citizens are placed into the foster system and adopted to American families.

Watch this 2-minute short video about the legal holes in the foster system that allows immigrants children to be adopted by American families and unable to live with their biological family. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1afK4XwsJc

I would like to challenge you all to think about this issue from multiple perspectives, including the American government’s, the parents’, the children’s, the foster family’s, the adopted children’s friends’, and ours. Are we able to justify the issue? If so, how? If not, why?

 

“More than 5,400 children split at the border, according to new count”. NBC News, Oct. 25, 2019. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/more-5-400-children-split-border-according-new-count-n1071791.