Author: jiang.1963

Text Review: Green Book

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Green Book is a American film talking about the true story of a tour of the Deep South by Don Shirley, an African American pianist, and Italian American Tony Lip. The Green book was used for identifying the place that would accept African American travelers during segregation era in the United States. The film made a big contrast that Don Shirley was a famous pianist and lived in a mansion, but Tony Lip was a guard and lived in small apartment. In the film, Shirley hired Tony as his driver for his 8-week concert tour in Midwest and Deep South. During 8 week concert trip,

We could see many racial discriminations happed and Dr.Shirley was treated badly. For example, when Dr.Shirley wanted to use room toilet during the concert intermission, the house owner refused his request due to his black identity, and asked Dr.Shirley to use outside toilet for colored people, which was racism. In the last stop of concert, Dr.Shirley also didn’t allow to have dinner in the restaurant where invited him to play piano. Dr.Shirley was lonely, because he wasn’t accepted by white and black groups. African Americans seemed him like high educated pianist, who had different socioeconomics with them. Tony taught Dr.Shirley how to eat fried chicken, which was popular food throughout African Americans, but Dr.Shirley had never eaten this, which alluded that Dr.Shirley lived totally different situation with normal African Americans.  Americans treated him as “others” due to his black identity.

Furthermore, Tony helped Dr.Shirley to find the true self. Tony took Dr.Shirley to African American music club nearby the restaurant, and appealed Dr.Shirley to play piano. At first, Dr.Shirley refused it, because he considered African Americans could not understand what was he playing. When many people around Dr.Shirley knew he was a famous pianist, and asked him to play. After he played the piano, all people applauded and admired his talent in playing piano. In the end, Dr.Shirley recognize his black identity and found out real himself.  I believe the film conveys an idea of equality. Each group has their own identity and culture, and people should not only respect others but also recognize their own unique identity and culture. 

Reference:

https://www.universalpictures.com/movies/green-book

Yo is This racist?

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“What do you think about Chinese Communist Party?”

This question has been proposed for several times when I start to study abroad in the United States. The question is seemingly innocent question,  but it highlights the distance between other students and I, because the question assume that we are living in different political system. I always answered that my life is no different from the United States and China. However, they don’t believe my answer, because my answer is different to media or news about Chinese life they have seen.

Why someone could assume another person’s life in its mother country based on their country’s news or media information rather than others personal experience?  The main reason for this is that they imply that people living in the United States have the best life in the world, and you must live in worse condition in your home country. Thus, American government has capability to guide other country’s governments to achieve better economy or advance technology based on their minds. In addition, they think Democracy is superior that communism, because Democracy respect the rights of people but communism is not.

Is this only a political problem? Absolutely not! We, as a world, should respect other country’s choice and believe there are various way of achieving better life for human. People should not treat people as “Other” based on their race, religious, home country’s political system, because people have their own choice, and It is the real right of freedom. As Donald Trump won the election of 2016, the American diplomatic system total changed. The United States started to impose huge tax on imported goods from over 50 countries, including China, Korean, France, Germany and others. The act negatively impact international trade system, which decrease total welfare of human. In addition, , president trump tweeted that “Chinese people has stolen American Jobs, and we should move industries back to the United States,” which negatively affect relationship between Chinese and American, and it also provoked hate emotion to Asian people, which is definitely racism behaviors.

Is this the truth? I consider it is not! The American economic inequality has dramatically increased from 1970s to now as development of China. But it is not the main reason! After 1970s, American government started to develop service sectors instead of manufacturing sectors, and American became the financial center in the world. American working in financial market earned thousand billions of dollars from the world, but manufacturing workers lost millions of jobs. Therefore, it is not Chinese problem, and it is the problem of American system. The president Trump transfer hatred from upper class American people to Chinese people, which is systemic injustice.

What about the people’s life in African and Asia? Paris Agreement restricted country’s greenhouse gas emissions in the following 100 years to prevent global warming. In contrast, the agreement allows developed countries to have much high carbon emissions per capita compared to development countries, which is unfair to developing countries. Also, most developing countries are in Africa and Asia. As we know, developing countries need much higher carbon emissions to building countries. In addition, developing countries can’t afford transformation from high carbon emissions to low carbon emissions. In fact, the president Trump announced to quit Paris Agreement, which is an international organization that restrict country’s emission of greenhouse gas,which is relate to all human’s life. In contrast, Chinese government is actively to participate Paris Agreement, and claims the Carbon emission peak in 2035. The Chinese government closed many steel industries, which caused millions of Chinese people lose jobs, and spend billions of dollars to develop renewable energy to decrease greenhouse gas emissions. Right now, China has the most renewable energy generators in the world. On the contrary, many media and newspaper still insist on striking China based on its high total carbon emissions, which is systemic injustice for this country and people. They only focus on what did Africans and Asian damage their benefits, but they didn’t see what did Africans and Asian do for the world.

“Is Covid-19 a Chinese disease?” The president Trump tweeted “Covid-19 is a Chinese disease,” which increase violence toward Asian people. As the spread of tumor, more and more people start to attack Asians, and consider Asian people deliberately spread Covid-19 to the world. Especially, the violence reflects growing tension between Asian and other races, which upgrade to global racial issue. At the beginning, scientists assume that the origin of Covid-19 is from Wuhan wild animals market, because some Chinese people indeed eat wild animals, the virus infected people who had been the market. I see there are many news that published that “most Chinese people eat wild animals” after outbreak of coronavirus, which refers Chinese people as savages. These media and news enlarged gap between Asian and other races and escalated the whole event to racial problem. I saw many comments under news condemned Chinese people. The event recalls my memory when I was in high school. One of my classmate asked me “Do all Chinese people eat dogs?” I consider it is a racism behavior, because only small percent of Chinese eat wild animals, and eating wild animals is illegal in China!

In addition, I consider Hongkong issue also increases anti-Asian emotion in the United States. Hongkong people took violent protests in 2019 for asking democracy, and considered Chinese mainland government strongly intervened Hongkong’s democratic government. American and European governments strongly condemned Chinese government and supported this violent protest. In contrast, the protest strongly impact Hongkong economy and people’s life. Many weastern medias and news illustrate Chinese government as dictatorship. It is systematic injustice for Asian people. In contrast, when Catalan won the votes to declare independence, there was no media refers Spanish government as dictatorship,  even though Spanish parliament didn’t approve it. The double standards for China and Spain are definitely discrimination. Furthermore, the Hongkong protest indeed harmed fame of Asian and provoke anti-Asian emotion, because people were living under different political system. What is really freedom? Each race should have rights to choose their political systems that gives them life they want.

Based on my proposed question at the beginning “What do you think about Chinese communism party?” When I introduce I am from China mainland, people have already defined my identities. People always listen what they want to, and segregate or treat people with different identities as “Other.” People always see what they want to. Even though you explained the truth to them, they probably don’t accept and believe the truth, because you are “Other.”

Why people do in this way? The reason for this is that most people have limited access to information and they treat people as “other” based on their race, ethnicity, religion and stereotypes to evaluate people. Therefore, based on demonstrated information, there are many Asian, who get racial discrimination and unfair treatments in the United States, because people think your origins represent most of you. Furthermore, Asian only represent small percent of minorities in the United States, many other races also encounter similar situations.

As far as I concern, there is some irony in the statement. About 3000 years ago, each race established their unique culture, religion and language, which strongly proved there was no difference between races. Furthermore, I believe every race have their own intelligence and capable of establishing their own country. There is no political system superior than another one, and race should find their own suitable development method depending on their location, culture and population. These ancient civilization confirmed that race were equal, and there was no racial discrimination in human’s origin. According to World War 2, Hitler considered Germanic nation was the smartest race in the world. He lead Germany to take war with other countries, but Germany finally was defeated by other countries, including Britain, Russia, the United States and France. Extreme racism only brought bloody war, and people should stop racial discrimination.

Furthermore, providing equal opportunities to all races plays a pivotal role in building the community of human destiny. Therefore, people should respect others cultures, religion, country’s political system, and race. The developed countries should not intervene developing countries, because the race living in developing countries have rights to choose their own developing way, like our ancestors. We are living on Earth, our home planet, and we get all we need from it. Thus, none of race is special and different races can establish diverse civilizations.

I have once heard the world is a melting pot, which metaphor for different society becoming more similar. Development of transportation and the emergence of internet dramatically increased communications among people around world. Media and newspaper should take their responsibility to publish true reports, which could strongly decrease racial bias. I believe that each race is a shiny star. Some stars are shiner nowadays, but I believe every stars will find their developing ways to be as shiny as sun. People should discard racist ideas and should not evaluate people just based on their racial and religious identities. I hope the world without racial discrimination will come shortly!

Reference:

Studio Incendo. (2019). Hong Kong anti-extradition bill protest. Retrieved April 6, 2021, from https://www.flickr.com/photos/studiokanu/48108527758/

Diary of Systemic Injustice Showcase: Chinese tourists in Korean

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I remembered a Korean news few years ago. The park administrative staff thought Chinese visitors throw trash carelessly in the park, so thus Korean park set up “Please do not litter” sign in Chinese, which I consider it was systemic injustices, because it treated Chinese tourists as “Other”.

The signs claims “if you throw trash on the ground, you will be fined a million Korean dollars (about 1000 US dollars)” in Chinese. Using Chinese in a Korean park alluded that Korean people believed that all trash were threw by Chinese visitors, and it labelled Chinese visitors as uncivilized people, and it also humiliated China as an uncivilized country.

In addition, Korean newspaper media published an article named “Chinese Tourists are still treating Korea’s airport like a garbage dump.” Korean people were provoked by this news and blamed Chinese tourists to stop coming Korea, which negatively impact the relationship between China and Korea. In contrast, Jeju Airport duty-free department claimed these trash were not littered by Chinese tourists. Korean social media still haven’t deleted this article until nowadays.

At the beginning, I didn’t believe only Chinese visitors throw trash carelessly in the park or airport. I am from Wenzhou, a small city in China, and I have never see people throw trash carelessly to the ground, even on the street. Thus, I was anger with action of park administration and news media. After, some Chinese people, living in Korean, did a survey in that park and collected data. They found out most trash were threw by Korean locals not Chinese visitors. After several weeks debate on park website, The park administration finally agreed to remove “Please do not litter” sign in Chinese. China is an developing country, and more and more people start to travel abroad. I consider some Chinese visitors have uncivilized behaviors overseas, but not all or only Chinese visitors do that. Park administration can set up a sign to tell people “not littering” but not setting up sign in Chinese, which is systemic injustices for Chinese visitors. In addition, Korean people should treat tourists equally, and Korean social media should stop publishing fake news and they should do more research on the event before they publish.

Reference:

luqing Lin (1998, Nov. 15). No littering in Korean parks.  Retrieved March 27, 2021, from https://www.sohu.com/a/275604001_100168271

Ryan General (2017). Treating Korea’s Airport Like a Garbage Dump. Retrieved March 27, 2021, from https://nextshark.com/chinese-tourists-jeju-airport-korea-garbage/

Context Research Presentation- Ahmad and Ortiz-Cofer

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While I am reading The Story of My Body, I am thinking about the racialism. Even though the minorities also could go to public school in the last mid-century, they were still segregated with the white children in some way.

As writer, Called Judith Ortiz Cofer, mentioned in her paper, “I hope my baby doesn’t turn out Prieto (slang for “dark or black”).” The person must be aware of his own existence by seeing itself by other people’s eyes. Her skin color is black, not like her parents. Her parents protect her from sunlight when she was a child to avoid her to have darker skin color. From this detail, audience would know that racial discrimination was still serious at that period of time, and Ortiz’s parents wanted their children to have white skin color which alluded that they thought white skin color was superior to dark skin color. She also write a shopping experience when she was a child. She touched a doll with blonde hair, which is symbol of white skin hair, but she didn’t buy it. The owner of market shouted at her and call her “dirt”, which is a extremely unpolite behavior. She went back home and wanted to wash out her “dark” skin. From these action, I allude that the writer also consider white color is superior to her skin color.

In the reading, she also writes her experience in American high school life. She was beautiful and tall respect  to Puerto Rican, but she was not popular in school. She was short and thin compared to American white children. Even though she was good at studying, she was the last to be picked by game team. In her mind, she still consider that the white aesthetic is right. She loved an American white boy, called Ted, and she wanted to date with him. Unfortunately, Ted’s father disagree with their date, because she is a Puerto Rican with dark skin.  The big psychological gap made her to be timid and afraid of joining games with white children.

To sum up, the racial discriminations happen all the time in her writing. I consider her story reflected story of minority’s life in last mid-century.