Created by Sheng Li and Feifan Zhao
Sheng Li：Hello! This is Sheng Li from OSU students radio. Most people are sensitive about race, so most people may avoid it. But we’re a student radio station, so we’re free to talk about it on this show. Welcome to the program “Yo, Is this racist?”
Feifan Zhao: Yes. A warm welcome to our program. Sheng, how long have you been in OSU? A semester? A school year? I’ve been at OSU for about two school years. After the COVID-19 outbreak in the US, I went back to China. I care about the situation of Buckeyes’ health. Are they OK?
S: I used to stay in OSU for only one term because of the eruption of COVI-19. Although I only stayed at OSU for one semester, many seniors helped me integrate into OSU’s life as soon as possible in the first month. Therefore, I am also very concerned about them living in the United States.
F: In my opinion, the current epidemic in the United States is well under control. The government and schools are promoting vaccines on a large scale. I believe that the current campus is relatively safe. After the epidemic in the United States stabilizes, I may choose to return to campus.
S: Yes it is. I have also considered this. By the way, have you ever seen a movie called The Transporter? The movie covers the story of selling Asians. What is your opinion on the crime of human trafficking?
F: No, I have never watched it. But I hate the act of human trafficking. In the early twentieth century, after many Asian countries suffered from colonialism, many innocent Asian civilians were trafficked to Western countries such as Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom and other colonial countries. And in the history of the United States, blacks have also been sold to Africa as slaves.
S: Oh! You are just stating some facts. What I want to ask is your attitude and views on discrimination against people of color like human trafficking.
F:As far as I am concerned, racial discrimination should not be forgiven under any circumstances. Those who discriminate against people of color should be judged. Whether they are black or yellow, they should be respected and fair.
S: Ok. I understand what you mean. Do you know that, FeiFan? According to reports, there have been more and more news about the persecution of people of color in recent years. For example, in the United States, many Asians have recently been attacked by others on the street for no reason. And many of the targets of the attacks were elderly people with limited mobility.
F: This is indeed the case, and I am also following this type of news recently. The piece of news that shocked me the most was that three massage parlors in Atlanta were attacked by ruffian, resulting in the deaths of 6 Asians so far. After I watched the incident, I immediately posted a tweet on Twitter to support the protection of Asians. The Asian civil rights groups, current officials at all levels, and Chinese associations across United States came out with condemnation statements and emphasized that racial hate crime must be stopped. On the other hand, the hash “#StopAsianHate” topped Twitter and people of all races, genders and ages takes to the street in California, Pennsylvania, New York, Washington to protest against Asian hate
S: That also shocked me a lot. This is the crack in the process of ethnic integration. Some extreme people are like the murderer mentioned in your news, trying to destroy the integration between races because of their own prejudice. This is something that all our people don’t want to see. Just like whether in school or in society, it is necessary to equitably integrate all races. The so-called systemic justice means that under one system, no matter what the system is, there is no need for people to discriminate against people of color.
F: Wow! Are you talking about the same principle throughout the story? To be fair, there are good people in the United States, regardless of race; there are heart-warming stories, regardless of region. But the levels are more superficial, just like the “high talk” between them holding red wine and coveting each other, the content is very general. People have many faces. They may spit on the ground and urinate in the corner in the first second, and then use unwashed hands to hold the door for pregnant women in the next minute, and smile gently with their unclean mouth. High-level culture does not have the problem of race discrimination, only class discrimination: class can be crossed through hard work and competition, and race discrimination can only pray for the perfect quality of condoms to stop loss in time.
S: Not only Asians, but African Americans are often treated unfairly. This is also a common topic. Everyone has different opinions on the topic of how to better protect African Americans from discrimination and harassment.
F: Since the independence of the United States, with the rapid development of the liberal capitalist economy, and in view of its advantageous geographical location and political environment, the United States has gradually developed into the world’s largest immigrant country with a population of 300 million. However, with the United States to this day, it is the deep-rooted issue of racial discrimination. Although the United States has legally abolished the relevant laws restricting the political rights of minorities, ethnic minorities represented by blacks, due to their bloody history of captivity and enslavement, have caused them to still be widely regarded in American society.
S: Sure. I definitely agree that too!
F: Just like we learned the concept about “one” and “Others” from this course. The essence of racism and discrimination is that native Americans see Asians or Africans as “Others”, and see themselves as “One”. For those people who are regarded as “Others”, they work hard and trying their best to adapt the environment. However, those people who consider themselves as “One” break their American dream of a better life.
S: Yes, I totally agree with your concept. Last week, we read the book named “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” by Mohsin Hamid. The protagonist of this novel also suffers this problem. He loves the United States and works hard to be accepted by his American friends. However, After the terrorist attack of 9/11, people began to see him as “Others”. He faces increasing racism and discrimination after this disaster. And even the woman he loved left him. People break his America dream.
F: Meanwhile you try to think a question. Why the black anti-discrimination struggle has not yielded results? Because they have adopted the wrong method of struggle, trying to suppress the voice of discrimination, instead of eliminating the source of discrimination. This method is destined to treat the symptoms rather than the root cause. When suppressing the voice, under pressure, people will ostensibly say that I treat them equally and do not discriminate against any race, but once I have the opportunity, if I don’t get caught, my true mentality will be exposed, and I will discriminate even more severely. This is implicit discrimination.
S: Right. As a counterattack, in the event of serious discrimination against blacks, large-scale disturbances will occur. It is essentially a way of hurting each other: if you hurt me, I will hurt you so that you dare not discriminate against me. This has achieved a balance of power on the surface, but on the one hand, discrimination still exists, but it has been covered up. Because the root causes of discrimination have not been eliminated, the results of the disturbances will plant the seeds of hatred, leading to retaliation, and the situation further deteriorates.
F: Yes, I don’t deny your point. Just like the event of death of George Floyd has caused the mass demonstration, which is known as Black Lives Matter. In the protest march, a number of lawbreaker take advantage of chaos of situation to loot shops and damage public property.
S: In my opinion, This tragedy is a classic example of structural injustice. The case of George Floyd is not an accidental event. Black people are killed during law enforcement every year. In the subconscious of many police officers, black people are dangerous because they have the highest crime rate. This is called “Single story” in our course. In this way, when they face black people during enforcement, they would be nervous and overreact.
F: All in all, I think most people will generally agree with a society in which various resources are allocated to everyone in the society in a more reasonable way, so that everyone can get what they deserve. Resources. The type and amount of resources a person obtains should depend as much as possible on the person’s own choices and actions. Of course, this kind of assumption is obviously ideal, and until now, there has not been a distribution rule that conforms to this ideal and satisfies everyone. However, based on this higher idealization standard, we can also derive the definition of “discrimination” in turn, that is, in a certain system or culture, if a person’s differentiated treatment in terms of resource allocation and social circumstances is similar to that person’s If there is no causal relationship between the actions and actions, then we will say that this person has suffered “discrimination” and intuitively will think this is a bad and unfair thing.
S: Our program is going to say good bye. Thanks for listening to our program! If you like us, please keep focusing on us.
F: Thanks for your listening! If you like us, please keep focus us. Bye bye!
News source from: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/reports/a32728194/black-lives-matter-timeline-movement/
https://www.thecut.com/2020/08/man-pinned-down-by-minneapolis-police-officer-dies.html
News source from: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/03/17/us/shooting-atlanta-acworth