Transcript
Hello everybody thank you for tuning into the Yo is this racist podcast. I, Jonas Woelk, will be your host today, and we will be delving into a series of topics to determine, yo are they racist.
The subject matter for today’s podcast will include discussion of unequal protestor treatment, Asian American hate crimes, and immigration policies. Alright so starting off with the wrongful treatment of protestors by the police. We will be comparing two different scenarios and determining if the magnitude of police force was justified based on the scope of the violence occurring. And once again we will be determining yo is it racist by seeing if race played a part in the brutality by police force. The first event goes as follows Donald Trump losing the election stirred up supporters and fueled a capitol riot where predominately white supporters went to storm the US capitol causing lots of havoc and damages up to $30 million dollars worth. Clearly, this matter had violence and destruction and yet the police used little to no intervention to diminish the situation. On the other hand another protest last year around the White House consisted of a very peaceful protest where mainly African American demonstrators were chanting and holding up signs of those who have fallen victim to police brutality. This protest however ended with police officers in riot gear clearing out the crowd with stun grenades while the storming of the capitol consisted of little to no brute force from the police to decrease the scope of the situation although the level of destruction and danger was much greater. So the question stands Yo is this racist? And my answer to that is yes, because the government and police force have plans and policies set in place for situations such as these and they handled both incidents very differently based on the identity of the majority of the protestors. The storming of the capitol with white trump supporters was much more severe and had limited injuries to protestors compared to the peaceful African American protestors speaking out against police brutality. This was clearly racist and can be seen with numerous other examples during the Black Lives Matter movement. In order to improve on the situation those involved in the situation, specifically the police force, should determine treatment of the scenario at hand based on the severity rather than the race of the protestors.
On the second installment of yo is this racist we will be discussing Asian American hate crimes. Specifically, attacks such as a New York neighborhood stabbing and a shooting of a primarily Asian staffed spa in Georgia are events as of recent where it was said claimed that the perpetrator was targeting Asian Americans but this was not confirmed. However, proving a racist motive can be particularly difficult with attacks against Asians because there is no widely recognized symbol of anti-Asian intentions such as the Swastika for Anti-Semitism against the Jewish population. This demonstrates how the crimes against Asians are usually dismissed as crimes unrelated to race and are not given as much attention and importance as they should due to there not being a specified hate symbol associated with them. Another point that needs to be brought up is how some people claim that due to Asian Americans being more socially privileged with good steady income jobs with financially stable families means that they can not have a hate crime associated with them. I believe this is completely false because although a group of people may not be struggling in the fiscal department, they can still be attacked or targeted. This perception of Asian Americans having power and privilege comes along with mistreatment in the form of hate crimes and microaggressions. This is of great importance because it demonstrates that although having social status and being privileged there are still racist actions that can be committed against you. So the question stands, Yo is this racist? Here this is a very tough call because as mentioned previously we do not know for certain the intention of the attacks due to the Asian American population not having any specific symbol that is associated with their mistreatment. However, using proper assumptions I would deem these crimes as hate crimes and therefore determine this issue as racist because Asians can be seen being targeted in these crimes and if most governments such as New York do not consider them hate crimes they do not prioritize their resolution enough and this is quite an issue. A solution to this systemic injustice would be to educate more people of the issue as well as encouraging governments to use probable reason in considering these crimes as hate crimes. Conclusively, using my probable reason, I believe these are hate crimes and yes this is racist.
For our final topic of the day on the Yo is this racist podcast, includes a discussion about immigration. We will be talking about two varieties that immigration policies come in. One being refugees fleeing their countries in Europe for a specific reason to escape the hardships faced there and the other is the immigration policies of the US created by the Trump Administration. Taking a look at the refugee crisis in Europe a specific event I would like to feature on Yo is this racist occurred around a month ago where Rohingya refugees were found by Indian coast guards in the Andaman Sea attempting to flee to India. There were eighty-one survivors on the ship and eight pronounced dead and of the survivors there were many in dire condition being severely dehydrated and sick. The people were taken to the closest safe location and denied entry to India. I believe India’s denial of entry was not racist but if we delve in deeper to determine the root of why the Rohingyan people fled their country we have another decision to make whether racism is occurring. Through further investigation and research it was determined that that over 740,000 Rohingya people fled Myanmar since 2017 due to institutionalized discrimination, such as exclusionary citizenship laws. Clearly, this can be seen as a systemic injustice because the government has specifically placed laws on a group of people to revoke their citizenship and limit their rights, therefore, forcing them out of the country. This act has impacted over hundred of thousands of peoples lives specifically those of the ethnic Muslim minority group going by the name of the Rohingyas. They have been forced to leave their homes and move to another place in the world involuntarily due to the Myanmar government. Therefore through greater analysis of the situation I can determine this exclusion of the Rohingyas and their motive for fleeing was most definitely due to racism. So transitioning to the immigration policies within the US, specifically during the Trump administration when President Trump decided to strengthen immigration laws and put a ban on immigration from many Middle Eastern countries. This act seems to be targeted towards the false generalization that many Muslims are linked to terrorism. Trump was clearly targeting the Muslim population with this ban, which is not fair or justified to the majority of immigrants from these regions that have no ties to terrorism and just want to escape from their possibly war-ridden areas to the United States for a better life. These racist policies also extend to other groups such as Mexicans who are stereotyped by some illegally entering the country. Clearly, these racist immigration policies have quite an impact on people’s lives. Now for the final Yo is this racist? I would deem it racist due to immigration policies being specific laws and rules that were set with the intent to disable people from entering the country. Therefore, to rectify these actions the immigration policies should be removed and border security and background checks should be improved therefore to acquire a nice, perfect middle ground between desirable policies of each party.
Alright, that will be concluding this week’s segment on Yo is this racist? where we discussed three various situations plaguing society currently and determined, Yo is this racist? Thank you again for tuning in and we will see you next week for another edition of Yo is this racist where we will be discussing more issues around the world. Thank you again, signing off.