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RAY: Hello everyone, this is the “Yo is this…” podcast with Raymond Davis, Sara Zelinskas, and Mikey Hilmer, and we’re here to ask: Yo, are the effects of COVID systematically unjust? And how? First, in order to fully understand these injustices, we must understand what caused them and what defines them. We are all very, and at this point maybe too much, familiar with the COVID-19 pandemic, but it helps to still explain. The COVID-19 pandemic was caused by the deadly Coronavirus that originated in China and quickly spread across the world. In order to protect ourselves and others from this virus, governments around the world had to respond by imposing rules and regulations on almost every aspect of daily life, including business, healthcare, politics, and social life. With these never before seen changes to our daily lives, many people were pushed to extremes of their emotions whether it be about politics or simply how you treat other people, and we’re here to break it down

RAY: The first effect and arguably most widespread effect of COVID I’d like to discuss is wealth, and how COVID, especially stimulus checks and increasing wealth inequality, exposed the systematic injustice in the topic. So to start off, do either of you guys work? And if you do, how did COVID affect your work day?

SARA: Working at the Wexner Medical Center, we experienced a surge in patients. Lot’s of my coworkers were out sick from work and there was an increased demand for shifts to be filled. It was a really interesting experience to work with COVID patients first hand, but my day to day life did not change too much.

MIKEY: Soccer ref, lost that. Layoffs at a bagel shop. 5-6 mo, collected unemployment

RAY: That’s very unfortunate. I work at a pizza shop here in Columbus as well and I had to stop working for about a month as well.  We aren’t the only ones though. A study by researchers at the University of Illinois found that 43% of all businesses reported temporary closures throughout the pandemic, and 50% of retail, arts and entertainment, personal services, food services (like me), and hospitality businesses struggled with employment. The study, contrasting this stat, found that finance, professional services and real estate related businesses experienced much less disruption because their work was much easier to transition to remote. So this is where an important injustice comes into play, and I’m gonna throw you guys a softball question, which business do you guys think rely more on in person interaction for their success, small businesses like retail, entertainment, and food services? Or larger corporations that deal mostly with finance and professional services? 

EITHER: Small Businesses. 

RAY: Correct! Now why do you guys think this is an issue? 

SARA: Well, smaller businesses, like you said, rely much more on in person business and cash flow from it in order to stay afloat. Additionally, smaller businesses have much less savings and valuation to rely on in order to survive as opposed to corporations. 

RAY: Exactly right. That same study from the University of Illinois stated that the median business with more than $10,000 in monthly expenses had only about 2 weeks of cash on hand at the time of their study, which, say, is roughly half of the necessary cash for a closure lasting an entire month. 

MIKEY: See that’s really interesting because though businesses may not have been closed the entire time, the pandemic has already lasted more than a year, and if small businesses are struggling to survive, they need to make cuts and a business’ largest expense is almost always payroll. 

RAY: I’m very glad you said that because this gets into my next point about the wealth of individuals and the effects COVID had. Using my last point as a hint, who do you guys think got richer during the pandemic, the average American or wealthiest individuals in America? 

BOTH: Wealthiest individuals. 

RAY: And you guys are very right. Did you guys know that, according to an NBC article I saw, the top ten richest billionaires in America saw their wealth grow by a collective $540 billion? That’s just absurd. 

MIKEY: That really does go to show how distant the wealth gap is in America. 

SARA: I agree, and to add to that the government, compared to how much these individuals gained, was still only able to give $1400 to independent individuals. 

RAY: Correct. And though $1400 is a lot of money to a large number of people, it was still not enough for many. 

SARA: So, billionaires made billions more dollars during the pandemic while people working at or near minimum wage struggled even more? 

MIKEY: That makes me think that minimum wage workers should be paid more for the jobs they do so they can have some security during events like the pandemic.

SARA: Yeah, isn’t the federal minimum wage only $7.25 an hour?

RAY:  Yes, and actually, I set up a hypothetical just to show how unfair it is that these billionaires amass insane wealth while average Americans only got $1400. So, data shows that over 100 million people were eligible to receive the stimulus check, and following the federal minimum wage of $7.25/hour, an individual would make just over $15,000 a year, which comes out to just under $1300 a month. 

MIKEY: Wow, so the stimulus only covered just over one month of an individual’s income and the checks were sent out just under a year into the pandemic? 

RAY: Exactly, it goes to show just how bad the systemic injustice of wealth inequality is in the country. And, while people were worrying about their finances, COVID affected certain groups in other drastic ways as well. 

Sara: As we can see, COVID has highlighted inequities and systemic injustices throughout the United States…if we are to expand this to a global level, an additional group of marginalized individuals that have been negatively impacted by the pandemic would be indigeneous women.

Ray: Now this is very interesting because I actually did one of my Diary of Systemic Injustice entries on an injustice against the Cherokee tribe but I did not mention COVID. Why is it that I barely see how the pandemic has affected these individuals? 

Sara: That’s so interesting! But yes, as you mentioned, these injustices experienced by indigeneous individuals are often silenced discussions. Outlining any and all groups that are negatively impacted by COVID is incredibly important. However, indigeneous people are often not thought about – mostly because they are often viewed as outside of functioning society, or somewhat irrelevant to our everyday lives (this could be due to a multitude of reasons). They are often looked down upon, falling into societal “othering.”

Mikey: We could even relate this to past readings with the idea of the subaltern – indigeneous people as a whole are often not given a voice in the community. They are unable to speak or communicate and are therefore not recognized.

Ray: What kinds of problems are indigeneous women facing during the pandemic, since we haven’t heard much about it in the news?

Sara: Indigeneous people have been suffering from injustices all throughout history, mostly originating from colonial and neo colonial policies. Because of this, indigenous women are less likely to be insured, which increases their likelihood for pre-existing health conditions. As we have learned, this can increase health complications with COVID-19. Besides medical insurance, indigenous women also experience environmental violence (including water and land pollution), increased mortality rates in childbirth, and domestic violence. Domestic violence has been dramatically increased globally, but especially in indigeneous societies with stay-at-home orders in regards to the COVID-19 pandemic. The presence of a language barrier is one of the greatest factors inhibiting these women from accessing better health resources.

Mikey: So as you have explained, it is evident that this is a serious issue. Who is currently working to bring these issues to light and what are they doing?

Sara: The United Nations focuses heavily on advocating for these groups of people all over the world and has stressed the severity the COVID-19 pandemic has had on indigenous individuals. One article I highlighted in a past diary of systemic injustice was titled “Our voices are being heard: Indigenous women in Mexico break down language barriers to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic in their communities.” The article talked about a woman named Juana Facundo who is a translator working with the UN in Mexico to assist with language barriers regarding the spread of health information for COVID-19. She is working to prevent violence against indigenous women and girls. 

Going off of this, it is so important that we recognize the relevance of these issues. We need to understand that these systemic injustices and inequalities were present long before the pandemic. COVID-19 simply exacerbated these issues and brought them to the front page of news articles. From an intersectionality perspective, the disparities these women face are escalated due to the roles they fall into within society – gender, race, ethnicity, and class. As I mentioned before, because they face language barriers, experience cultural female expectations, and class roles, many indigenous women are unable to speak for themselves and advocate on behalf of their own communities.

Mikey: Yes, exactly, indigeneous women were already suffering from prejudice and health inequities before Covid, just as Asian Americans have already long been suffering from xenophobia and racism in our country. Both groups have been negatively affected by the pandemic due to underlying systemic injustices and prejudices. 

Sara: I’ve heard throughout the pandemic of a rise of anti-Asian sentiments and prejudices, but what forms have these taken and how are they harmful to the Asian-American community?

Mikey: Well I mean, for starters, the reason people have largely grasped onto hatred towards Asians across the world is to fuel the need to have a scapegoat. 

Sara: So you’re saying that they just need a group to point a finger at for Covid?

Mikey: Yeah exactly. Looking just within the United States for example, more than 2,800 reports of hate incidents were reported to the advocacy group Stop AAPI Hate just from March to December of 2020.These reports ranged in their level of prejudice from verbal harassment, shunning, being coughed/spat on, workplace discrimination, to even deadly physical assault. 

Raymond: I also saw that in just New York City alone, police responded to 27 hate crimes against Asian-Americans last year, a 9 fold increase from the previous year. Anyone looking at these figures obviously can see that this is a startling and concerning trend that has forced Asian-Americans to take extra steps to ensure their safety. 

Mikey: These modern Asian-American xenophobia trends in America show an almost clear-cut example of the ideas of “othering,” where one group of people sees another as outsiders and that they don’t belong. With the Coronavirus originating in Asia, people who look as though they may originate from that area of the world have immediately been separated from the rest of everyday Americans as they are seen by many as part of the reason Covid spread to the US, even when they have no part in it. It’s important to understand this concept when we talk about xenophobia and prejudice as it shows WHY people believe what they believe. 

Sara: That makes a lot of sense. Also, Raymond, I remember that you mentioned Asian-Americans having to take extra steps to ensure their safety, what do you mean by that?

Raymond: Largely, this means being constantly on the look-out for possible threats but can also take the form of actions they must take that disrupt their lives to ensure that they are not stuck in a bad situation. As a matter of fact, Asian-Americans surveyed have reported returning home from work early to avoid walking home at night. Also, a lot of Asian-American businesses have been impacted by the harassment and threats, forcing them to close early or close their businesses all together due to lack of business.

Mikey: Alright so what’s being done about this xenophobia? Personally, I saw that President Joe Biden signed an executive order during his first week in office banning the use of… like… “hateful” speech towards Asian-Americans by federal employees such as calling the coronavirus the “Chinese virus” or “kung flu,” which is obviously a direct action against the words stated during the Trump Presidency. But are there any other efforts currently in effect to help Asian-Americans?

Sarah: Well, I know that members of Congress such as Congresswoman Judy Chu are calling for the Democratically controlled Senate and House of Representatives to pass new legislation in order to put more attention and resources towards tackling the issue. Within our communities, many Asian-American support and advocacy groups, such as Stop AAPI Hate, have organized marches and protests against this hate which are open for citizens to support. Additionally, many of these organizations are accepting donations through their websites so that anyone wanting to help but being too uncomfortable to protest due to the pandemic can still lend a hand.

Conclusion:

Ray: As we can see, COVID has had an enormous impact on the wellbeing of many different populations. Not only has it had these directly negative effects, but it has highlighted many systemic injustices that have already been present in our society, such as ongoing racism and xenophobia. We can explain these issues through the construct of power, othering, and the idea of the subaltern. As college students, we can sometimes be blind or isolated from these issues. We can do our part by bringing attention to these inequities and speaking about them to incite change. The goal of our podcast was to provide some examples of these issues in reference to the pandemic, and discuss and connect them on a broader level. Thanks for listening! 

Eric: Hi I’m Eric, welcome to the first installment of Yo is this racist. Today well be talking about the capitol riots and I’m joined by Jared and Owen. Jared, what’re your thoughts on this topic?

Jared: In the 2020 election, Joe Biden was awarded president-elect. Following this event, President Donald Trump proclaimed to his supporters that it was a rigged election and that they must take back what was right. On January 6th, rioters stormed the U.S Capitol during the joint session of the House of Representatives to count the votes. The rioters were able to get past the police barricade and enter the Capitol building without any repercussions. Following the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, it was reported that only 69 individuals were arrested after (Shamsian 2021). From the arrests you can see the systematic injustice of the criminal justice system. In the Black Lives Matter protests, people were fighting against police brutality. In the Capitol riots, which were pre-dominantly Caucasian people, they were fighting because the person they supported lost. You can see the dynamic of fighting for basic civil rights versus fighting because a candidate that you supported lost. I believe this is a systematic injustice because although the BLM protests were composed of a variety of races, their cause was African American focused. Rioters at the Capitol got into one of the most protected buildings in the US, this without a doubt was due to the color of their skin. I think the only way to prevent these incidents is to implement a better training program for police officers in general. Police officers should not have to judge whether someone is a threat or should be arrested based on the color of their skin, or what they believe in.

Jared: So, Owen my question for you is, what is your thought on the differences in law enforcements in the BLM protests and then the capital riots.

Owen: A massive group of citizens stormed and broke into the capitol building in Washington DC. The group broke in, stole personal and private items, terrorized police, and refused to leave. This instance is not the injustice, but it is within the reaction that the injustice lies. The group of people was not met with threats or police throwing tear gas or fear for their life, they were met with unarmed guards that did not try to fight or instigate, they just tolerated it. This situation was gut-wrenching to me because I along with the rest of the world witnessed the harsh systemic injustice that the US reacted with during the BLM protests. BLM protestors received tear gas, rubber bullets, and real bullets, just to name a few. Now, there was a group of people who were looting and acting with violence. It is important we do not confuse these people with those who are trying to peacefully enact change and raise awareness. The actions of looters have corrupted the message of those who are demonstrating without violence. Distinguishing these two groups is essential to uncovering the truth: The Black Lives Matter movement is not about inciting violence. These Protestors were thrown in jail for doing no more than protesting within their legal right, but when a group of an overwhelming majority of white people break into our nation’s capitol, they’re not arrested or shot at, they’re allowed to continue in peace, its unacceptable. And it’s this type of contrast illuminates the looming injustice and bias still rooted within our nation. I am not calling for the same to be done to those white protestors as was done to BLM supporters, I am simply calling for the opposite, and I think that is what the people want as well.

Owen: Building off of that, Eric, what do you think these events will look like and how do you think they’ll be handled in the future?

Eric: In the future I believe we’ll see a more prepared and ethically trained task force, to deal with any type of protest, at any type of level. Now that we have a different president with better morals and values, I think this is a great step in the right direction.

Eric: Jared, what do you think the world needs to do to make this a more attainable goal?

Jared: I think the only thing we can do is to educate ourselves. Right now, we live in a very divided world. Educating our people to view life from other people’s perspectives is incredibly important to understand what they are going through. It all starts with the criminal justice system. We need to instill curriculums that can educate the police force on diversity and inclusion. They need to understand that not every African American “fits the description”. We overall just need to do better.

Jared: And Eric I know that you did a lot of your systemic injustices happening within the African American Community, can you tell us more about that.

Eric: In the United States, African Americans currently make up 13% of the population. However, they represent about 40% of the prison population. If a white person and an African American person both commit the same crime, the African American has a higher chance of getting arrested than the white person. A study done showed that when African American people are convicted, they are about 20% more likely to be sentenced to jail time, and typically see sentences 20% longer than those for whites who were convicted for similar crimes. A felony conviction also leads to the loss of the right to vote. More than 7.4% of the adult African American population is disenfranchised. Lastly, police surveillance is a huge problem in society. Day to day life is more challenging for African American drivers. African Americans are 30% more likely to be pulled over according to a study done by Ben and Jerry.

Eric: Being pulled over while Driving is just one of the many obstacles that African Americans face in their day to days lives. Owen, I know another obstacle that African Americans face is marijuana arrests. Would you like to go into that?

Owen: Yea of course, I think one extremely prevalent statistic today, with the topic of legalization of marijuana sweeping the nation, is the difference in marijuana possession arrests between the races. Per 100k arrests, there is a whopping difference of 411 more black arrests than white arrests, when the difference in usage is only 1.3%. These statistics provided by the US Department of Health and Human Services really display the vast difference in treatment between these populations, and how even though the nation may think that it has come a long way, it has not progressed nearly close to enough.

Owen: For instance, A restaurant named Choptank, located in Fells Point, Baltimore, posted a sign outside of their restaurant listing a dress code that prohibits several apparel items that are affiliated with black culture and style. this restaurant lists off excessively baggy clothing, inappropriate attire, jerseys, brimless headgear, backwards or sideways hats, and sunglasses after dark as strictly prohibited. All of these items of clothing typically associated with Black culture, making it quite evidently systemically racist. The restaurant also lists work boots as a banned footwear, a popular type of footwear within black and Latin communities. This sign received many complaints on social media and from critics all correctly accusing the restaurant of racial discrimination. These attempts today in society by restaurants and people like this are why there is still an underlying problem in this country, people can still get away with blatant racism through these methods.

Owen: Jared and Eric, are there any other instances of discrimination you have noticed in today’s society?

Jared: Yeah, so I can go first. My father immigrated from the Philippines when we were a young child, so he and I have faced our fair share of discrimination recently. This increasing hate can be pointed to Covid. On January 30th, the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 as a global health emergency, then later in March, declared a world-wide pandemic. Covid-19 originated in Wuhan, China and because of its originating location, Asian-Americans would quickly see a rise in unjust treatment around United States. Asian-Americans are being treated as a scapegoat for the virus and associated all Asians with the Chinese ethnicity. Furthermore, it’s important to note that just because the virus originated in China, doesn’t mean that all Chinese people are responsible for it spreading. According to the New York City Police Department, “it was reported that there was a 1900% increase in anti-Asian hate crimes in 2020”. To add on to this hate, previous president, Donald Trump, remarked the virus as the “Chinese virus” or the “Wuhan Virus”. Not only did he put the blame on the Chinese citizens of Wuhan, but he also added fuel to the fire of American-Asian hate. I believe that this is a systematic injustice because not only did the previous president inspire Asian American hate, but he did nothing to address it as well. Anti-Asian hate crimes are still at an all-time high due to the mislabeling and blame of the virus. Due to the wrongful grouping of identity, all ethnicities branching from Asian are also receiving hate. Asian-Americans are born and raised in America but yet still receive hate because to everyone else’s eyes, they are still foreigners. I think the only way to resolve this injustice is to educate the American people. I think it’s important to engrain the idea that just because the virus originated in China, doesn’t mean that all Asians are responsible.

Jared: Eric, have you noticed any experiences such as this, as a minority living in the United States?

Eric: Like Jared, I also come from a Hispanic background. I personally haven’t experienced a form of direct discrimination, but my mother has. My mother migrated here in her mid-20s from Mexico in hopes of starting a new life. When she first got here, she felt unsafe and unwelcomed, she experienced a lot of hardships while trying to establish a new life. She’s been mocked for her accent, made fun of, and more. Currently, there are thousands of children locked up in cages parentless along the border. In the future, I think we need to treat minorities with better intentions to make them feel less afraid and that they are welcome here.

Jared: This concludes the first segment of Yo is this racist, I just want to say fellas, I’m glad we were able to come together and talk about our experiences. This is Jared,

Owen: I’m Owen!

Eric: And I’m Eric.

Jared: Hope to see you on the next episode!

[The End]

Background information

There are two concepts that people often hear from the news, they are state-owned enterprises and private companies. A state-owned enterprise is “a legal entity that is created by a government in order to partake in commercial activities on the government’s behalf, it can be either wholly or partially owned by a government and is typically earmarked to participate in specific commercial activities”.(Kenton, 2020) While a private company is “a firm held under private ownership”. (Chen, 2020) There’s another keyword that often appears with state-owned enterprises which is monopoly where a single enterprise is the only or one of the few suppliers of a particular commodity.

Examples

Before we start to talk about commercial discrimination, let’s first look at an example of state-owned companies monopolizing the telecommunication market. In China, there are three main telecommunication companies and they are all state-owned enterprises. This is not a coincidence but an inevitable outcome since in China, individual enterprises are not allowed to enter the telecommunication market. In other words, a license to enter the market will only be given to state-owned companies. Similar phenomenons appear in other areas where important but not vital resources are allocated. Since individual enterprises do not have a chance to enter, several state-own companies often monopolize the whole market. In this example, there exists commercial discrimination since the government thinks it’s better to let state-owned enterprises control resources rather than giving the right of allocating these resources away to private companies. Here the concept of the “one” and “other” can be well applied. The government treats itself and state-owned enterprises as the “one” while treating private companies as the “other”. They are the group with power and are trying to use their power to eliminate private companies out of the market.

The problem of discrimination not only exists between companies but also between consumers and companies. Consumers often treat larger and famous companies as more reliable choices and avoid purchasing commodities from small companies that they do not know. However, the reason why some companies are well known is that they have more power or control the majority of resources in their field. They use advertisements to attract consumers and generate a virtuous cycle. This may connect to the concept of “subaltern”. Here, private companies are the subalterns who have less power and whose voices cannot be heard by the public. As a result, consumers will not buy their product as they haven’t heard about the company before and do not trust the company. Having fewer consumers, the company again earns less and further losses the power they have, forming a vicious cycle.

Besides discrimination against private companies, there is also discrimination against consumers. Companies charge differently on the same commodity while facing consumers from different social classes. This is again closely related to the power difference. The sellers often have more power and information. The consumers, on the other hand, do not have all information required for them to make the correct decision so is the group with less power. The theory of the one and the other can again be applied and consumers now become the other and sellers are the one.

According to previous information, we can conclude that there do exist commercial discrimination. However, is the government and consumers decision correct? Is it true that state-owned companies and monopolized companies are better than private and small companies? To answer these questions, we should first look at the advantages and disadvantages of the two types of companies.

Advantages and disadvantages

 Since state-owned enterprises can receive financial support from the government, they can lower the cost of production and lower the prices of their commodity, making them affordable for more consumers. State-owned companies are also more competitive in international trade, taking their size and available resources into consideration. If a field was monopolized by a few companies, consumers might find it more convenient to manage and easier to operate. Take the payment system as an example, in China, there are only two main types of payment systems, the Wechat payment, and the Alipay and these two types of payment are supported in all places. When paying, people can simply show the QR code. While in Japan, there are more than ten methods of payment, and different shops have different supported payment methods. Consumers might find it inconvenient to switch from one type of payment to the other.

However, there are also disadvantages. When state-owned companies achieved a monopoly, private companies, therefore, will have fewer chances to develop, and the variety of choices that are available for consumers decreases. A decrease in diversity will also lead to a decrease in competition. Companies that already exist in the market will then lose their intensity to develop as they know that no matter they work hard or not, they won’t lose their resources. These phenomenons will dampen the enthusiasm of the entire market. Monopoly, at the same time, enables the state-owned company to control the price. They can, as mentioned above, lower the price and benefit the majority, however, they can also choose to keep the original price or even rises the prices, receiving more benefit as consumers cannot find any subsidy. If enterprises decide to do so, fewer consumers will be able to afford the commodity.

Private companies have all the disadvantages mentioned above but they also have plenty of advantages. Since many private companies are small in size, they can allow more flexibility. When facing management problems, they are more likely to adjust in a short period and can better adapt to the market when there are changes in the market. Employees working in private companies also face more competition which may force them to enhance their working efficiency. Competitions might also exist between private companies focusing on the same field. As a result, product diversity will increase as companies are all trying to attract more consumers.

To put it all in a nutshell, both state-owned and private companies have advantages and disadvantages. We cannot say that one is better than the other, but we may acknowledge that one type of company is more suitable in a field and the other is more suitable in another field. Though there exists commercial discrimination, this discrimination should be eliminated.

Solutions

To solve this commercial discrimination, we must first learn that small, private company experiences discrimination since they do not have a chance to display themselves. In another word, they are experiencing systemic injustice. Whether they can get a license or not is not dependent on their ability but their “identity”; however, companies cannot decide their own identity. A private company may do better than a state-owned enterprise but they still cannot enter the market. To make the wrong thing correct, this systemic injustice should be solved. One thing that leads to systemic injustice is a power difference. Private companies who have less power do not have the chance to display themselves and consumers cannot hear from these companies. The government should let more private companies enter the field which they used to monopolize. If the resources available are important and the government does not want them to be controlled by individuals, they can introduce more state-owned companies into that field, making sure that competition exists between these companies. They can also give private companies more chances to give publicity to their commodity, providing consumers more choices and showing them that private companies are also reliable. As the information inequality between consumers and companies decreases, and more companies get power, the problem of commercial discrimination will be ameliorated.

Commercial Discrimination further thinking

The problem of commercial discrimination does not only exist as the examples mentioned above. As long as there is a power difference between the two companies, the problem of commercial discrimination will exist. To better understand commercial discrimination, we can start by thinking what is the benefit of commercial discrimination? Why some companies want commercial discrimination to exist? The answer is profit. Companies with more power monopolized the market, eliminating other companies to get all the profit in that field. These phenomena often appear when a private company monopolizes the market. In the case where consumers from different social classes pay differently when purchasing the same product, the sellers also aim to earn more profit. As a result, companies want to maintain commercial discrimination since it helps them to earn more money. After understanding their purpose, we can generate better ways of reducing commercial discrimination, solving the problem from where it was rooted. For example, the government can set up a limitation on the price of products, and set periodical checks to make sure that commodities have unified prices.

Although commercial discrimination is closely related to power difference, an appropriate degree of power difference can also have advantages. Under the situation where companies have the monopolized power, companies with less power may be encouraged to work harder and get more power, and companies which own more power will notice the benefit of owning more power. Noticing that others with less power are actively chasing, they do not want to give up their superiority and will work harder as well. Together the entire market will develop faster.

Work cited:

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/soe.asp

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/privatecompany.asp

“Yo, is this racist?”

Luodong Zhang, Xinyu Liu

4/5/2021

Luodong: Hi, Xinyu. Welcome to “Yo, this is… Racist” Column. As we all know, the topic of racial discrimination has always been very hot and hard. Can you share some ideas about racial discrimination with us?

Xinyu: Hi, Luodong. Hi, every reader. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to share my views on racial discrimination. From my point of view, racial discrimination is due to the following three reasons. First, human factors. Human beings are evolving, and in the process of evolution, the natural genes of “seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages” are preserved. Imagine a primitive person, in his familiar environment, dealing with familiar people is certainly more relaxed, but once he enters a strange environment, dealing with unfamiliar people, he will naturally feel alert and insecure. Among races communication, of course, they belong to unfamiliar fields. It’s not difficult to understand the natural hostility and wary attitude towards unfamiliar races. The second, the ruler factor. The rulers gave the masses a wrong cognition through their “Single Story”. Finally, the behavior of excessive possession of resources can be rationalized and legalized by the rulers. In other words, the ruler factor refers to a country, a regime, or a family power. As a ruler, establishing a common enemy stimulates the group strength and collective sense of honor, so as to transform the internal contradictions of the race. The easiest way to set up the enemy is to set up the hatred of the other race. By distorting their culture and uglifying the history of other races, ordinary people will easily define themselves as “one” and different races as “the other”. In the end, it is not easy for ordinary people to feel “guilty” when “the Other” you hate gets hurt. This is also a very important reason why Hitler was able to stimulate the slaughter of Jews in Europe during World War II.

Third, Racial discrimination caused by cultural factors refers to the meeting of people from different cultural backgrounds, so that people often understand their things from their own cultural perspective and with their own values, which sometimes leads to mutual misunderstanding and conflict. The cultural differences between China and the United States are a very clear example. Among the collective interests and individual interests, the Chinese often advocate that the collective interests are far greater than the individual interests. Therefore, the very popular movies in China are often the contents of saving the whole group at the expense of themselves. The United States, on the contrary, pursues individual heroism. Only by saving themselves can we save the whole collective. That’s why in American movies there are characters like the captain of the United States and iron man.

Luodong: well, Thank you for your analysis of the causes of racial discrimination. Protests against racial discrimination are going on every day. The Lakers met with NBA teams such as the clippers and bucks and decided to kneel down on one knee to protest against racial discrimination when the national anthem is played at the beginning of each game. Do you think there is a way to eliminate racial discrimination?

Xinyu: Although we all know that racial discrimination is a narrow thing after civilized education, I don’t think it can be eliminated. Only through our efforts can we reduce this kind of discrimination due to racial differences to some extent. First of all, we should change the perception of black advocate violence. I made a small survey on the history and culture of African blacks. I learned that in ancient times, many primitive tribes also opposed violence and advocated honesty. Like, in Achebe’s novel “things fall apart”, Okonkwo’s tribe had set the perfect legal system and a social operation mode that could make people live and work in peace and contentment. Secondly, I think everyone’s opportunity should be fair. For example, although black people are dominant in NBA, if there is a white man who plays very well, we will not despise him and refuse to let him play just because he is white, right? Similarly, there should be affirmative action in the workplace. In the work, the boss should choose the employee whose work efficiency is higher and performance is better, not whose skin color and appearance are more liked by the boss. In such a virtuous circle, human society will progress.

Xinyu: Recently, because of the outbreak of the covid-19 virus, American society has become unstable. Do you know of any other racial discrimination? It would be better if there were specific events.

Luodong: For me, I think the most painful thing was the shooting in Atlanta. This incident resulted in the deaths of nearly a dozen people and brought the issue of discrimination against Asians back into the spotlight.

Xinyu: Yes, it shocked me too, and that’s what we’re talking about today, racism. It has been an unfortunate year for all countries in the world, with COVID-19 leading to many deaths and social unrest leading to various cases of racial discrimination. Can you give us a little bit more detail about what happened in Atlanta?

Luodong: Sure. On March 16, the carnage lasted nearly three hours. The deranged killer rampaged through three massage parlors, leaving four Koreans, two Chinese, a white woman, and a white man dead. Police arrested him around 8:30 p.m. in the south of Atlanta. He was planning a trip to Florida to continue his killing spree. Asians were killed wherever he went. This is just what I learned from the media.

The memorial sits just outside Gold Spa after the deadly Atlanta shooting.

Xinyu: Yes, the motive of the killer has not yet been determined, except that he was not mentally ill. Do you think this attack was an act of racial violence?

Luodong: I’m not sure if I know enough about racism, although he denied a racial motive, the incident marked the culmination of a year of discrimination and violent crimes against the Asian community. I don’t understand why there is such hatred.

Xinyu: The incident led many Asians to march and hold up “Stop Asian Hate” signs. Could you tell me about your experience of studying in the United States if you have encountered racial discrimination?

Luodong: To be honest, I didn’t know anything about this before I came to the United States, and the news I saw made me worried. However, after I came to the United States, I found that there was almost no such discrimination in my daily study and life. Professors treated students fairly and gave me a lot of help. When I asked teachers and classmates questions, they answered me warmly. When I was a freshman, I lived in an apartment at the university. My roommates were very friendly to me. They would ask me to play basketball together, introduce me to the delicious restaurants around, and also ask me to watch football games on Gameday.

Xinyu: Sounds good! I still like to believe that most people have no animosity towards Asians.

Luodong: I think there are some stereotypes about Asians. As far as I can see, the majority of Asian people are working in service industries like laundry, restaurants, working for other people, etc. Most Asians do not live a rich life, and this level of wealth tends to lead people to think that Asians are the easy type to be bullied. I think this may be one of the reasons. In my opinion, in racial discrimination cases, there must be one party identified as “Others”. Because of the long-term low social status of Asians in the United States, it is difficult for Asians to truly integrate into this culture. As for the “Others” of De Beauvoir, the sense of national common sense can hardly be truly equal. Asians have always been regarded as outsiders.

Xinyu: In history, the United States is a multi-ethnic country with strong ethnic inclusiveness. Under the leadership of the first president, Washington, the United States won the War of Independence and promulgated various political laws, gradually becoming an independent and sovereign country as it is now. So, do you think this kind of discrimination problem can be solved or easily solved?

Luodong: The United States is already a multi-ethnic society, and the current turmoil is largely due to the government’s inaction and the people’s stereotypes and prejudices against other races. There are few courses in schools that really introduce students to foreign cultures. But because of the different customs and cultures of different countries, it is difficult to achieve true unity. In my opinion, such cultural differences are not the reason for discrimination. The main reason is to eliminate the prejudice in people’s minds, enhance social inclusiveness, and weaken the leading news. U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday condemned the rise in anti-Asian violence in the United States and called on all Americans to unite against hatred in a speech during a visit to Georgia. I hope that such discrimination can be weakened or eliminated.

Works Cited:

https://image.baidu.com/

https://www.16sucai.com/2013/10/27681.html

https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/world-56467496

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/17/us/atlanta-spa-shootings.html

“Yo, is this racist?”

Luodong Zhang, Xinyu Liu

4/5/2021

Luodong: Hi, Xinyu. Welcome to “Yo, this is… Racist” Column. As we all know, the topic of racial discrimination has always been very hot and hard. Can you share some ideas about racial discrimination with us?

Xinyu: Hi, Luodong. Hi, every reader. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to share my views on racial discrimination. From my point of view, racial discrimination is due to the following three reasons. First, human factors. Human beings are evolving, and in the process of evolution, the natural genes of “seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages” are preserved. Imagine a primitive person, in his familiar environment, dealing with familiar people is certainly more relaxed, but once he enters a strange environment, dealing with unfamiliar people, he will naturally feel alert and insecure. Among races communication, of course, they belong to unfamiliar fields. It’s not difficult to understand the natural hostility and wary attitude towards unfamiliar races. The second, the ruler factor. The rulers gave the masses a wrong cognition through their “Single Story”. Finally, the behavior of excessive possession of resources can be rationalized and legalized by the rulers. In other words, the ruler factor refers to a country, a regime, or a family power. As a ruler, establishing a common enemy stimulates the group strength and collective sense of honor, so as to transform the internal contradictions of the race. The easiest way to set up the enemy is to set up the hatred of the other race. By distorting their culture and uglifying the history of other races, ordinary people will easily define themselves as “one” and different races as “the other”. In the end, it is not easy for ordinary people to feel “guilty” when “the Other” you hate gets hurt. This is also a very important reason why Hitler was able to stimulate the slaughter of Jews in Europe during World War II.

Third, Racial discrimination caused by cultural factors refers to the meeting of people from different cultural backgrounds, so that people often understand their things from their own cultural perspective and with their own values, which sometimes leads to mutual misunderstanding and conflict. The cultural differences between China and the United States are a very clear example. Among the collective interests and individual interests, the Chinese often advocate that the collective interests are far greater than the individual interests. Therefore, the very popular movies in China are often the contents of saving the whole group at the expense of themselves. The United States, on the contrary, pursues individual heroism. Only by saving themselves can we save the whole collective. That’s why in American movies there are characters like the captain of the United States and iron man.

Luodong: well, Thank you for your analysis of the causes of racial discrimination. Protests against racial discrimination are going on every day. The Lakers met with NBA teams such as the clippers and bucks and decided to kneel down on one knee to protest against racial discrimination when the national anthem is played at the beginning of each game. Do you think there is a way to eliminate racial discrimination?

Xinyu: Although we all know that racial discrimination is a narrow thing after civilized education, I don’t think it can be eliminated. Only through our efforts can we reduce this kind of discrimination due to racial differences to some extent. First of all, we should change the perception of black advocate violence. I made a small survey on the history and culture of African blacks. I learned that in ancient times, many primitive tribes also opposed violence and advocated honesty. Like, in Achebe’s novel “things fall apart”, Okonkwo’s tribe had set the perfect legal system and a social operation mode that could make people live and work in peace and contentment. Secondly, I think everyone’s opportunity should be fair. For example, although black people are dominant in NBA, if there is a white man who plays very well, we will not despise him and refuse to let him play just because he is white, right? Similarly, there should be affirmative action in the workplace. In the work, the boss should choose the employee whose work efficiency is higher and performance is better, not whose skin color and appearance are more liked by the boss. In such a virtuous circle, human society will progress.

Xinyu: Recently, because of the outbreak of the covid-19 virus, American society has become unstable. Do you know of any other racial discrimination? It would be better if there were specific events.

Luodong: For me, I think the most painful thing was the shooting in Atlanta. This incident resulted in the deaths of nearly a dozen people and brought the issue of discrimination against Asians back into the spotlight.

Xinyu: Yes, it shocked me too, and that’s what we’re talking about today, racism. It has been an unfortunate year for all countries in the world, with COVID-19 leading to many deaths and social unrest leading to various cases of racial discrimination. Can you give us a little bit more detail about what happened in Atlanta?

Luodong: Sure. On March 16, the carnage lasted nearly three hours. The deranged killer rampaged through three massage parlors, leaving four Koreans, two Chinese, a white woman, and a white man dead. Police arrested him around 8:30 p.m. in the south of Atlanta. He was planning a trip to Florida to continue his killing spree. Asians were killed wherever he went. This is just what I learned from the media.

The memorial sits just outside Gold Spa after the deadly Atlanta shooting.

Xinyu: Yes, the motive of the killer has not yet been determined, except that he was not mentally ill. Do you think this attack was an act of racial violence?

Luodong: I’m not sure if I know enough about racism, although he denied a racial motive, the incident marked the culmination of a year of discrimination and violent crimes against the Asian community. I don’t understand why there is such hatred.

Xinyu: The incident led many Asians to march and hold up “Stop Asian Hate” signs. Could you tell me about your experience of studying in the United States if you have encountered racial discrimination?

Luodong: To be honest, I didn’t know anything about this before I came to the United States, and the news I saw made me worried. However, after I came to the United States, I found that there was almost no such discrimination in my daily study and life. Professors treated students fairly and gave me a lot of help. When I asked teachers and classmates questions, they answered me warmly. When I was a freshman, I lived in an apartment at the university. My roommates were very friendly to me. They would ask me to play basketball together, introduce me to the delicious restaurants around, and also ask me to watch football games on Gameday.

Xinyu: Sounds good! I still like to believe that most people have no animosity towards Asians.

Luodong: I think there are some stereotypes about Asians. As far as I can see, the majority of Asian people are working in service industries like laundry, restaurants, working for other people, etc. Most Asians do not live a rich life, and this level of wealth tends to lead people to think that Asians are the easy type to be bullied. I think this may be one of the reasons. In my opinion, in racial discrimination cases, there must be one party identified as “Others”. Because of the long-term low social status of Asians in the United States, it is difficult for Asians to truly integrate into this culture. As for the “Others” of De Beauvoir, the sense of national common sense can hardly be truly equal. Asians have always been regarded as outsiders.

Xinyu: In history, the United States is a multi-ethnic country with strong ethnic inclusiveness. Under the leadership of the first president, Washington, the United States won the War of Independence and promulgated various political laws, gradually becoming an independent and sovereign country as it is now. So, do you think this kind of discrimination problem can be solved or easily solved?

Luodong: The United States is already a multi-ethnic society, and the current turmoil is largely due to the government’s inaction and the people’s stereotypes and prejudices against other races. There are few courses in schools that really introduce students to foreign cultures. But because of the different customs and cultures of different countries, it is difficult to achieve true unity. In my opinion, such cultural differences are not the reason for discrimination. The main reason is to eliminate the prejudice in people’s minds, enhance social inclusiveness, and weaken the leading news. U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday condemned the rise in anti-Asian violence in the United States and called on all Americans to unite against hatred in a speech during a visit to Georgia. I hope that such discrimination can be weakened or eliminated.

Works Cited:

https://image.baidu.com/

https://www.16sucai.com/2013/10/27681.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/17/us/atlanta-spa-shootings.html

https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/world-56467496

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

In order to further understand one situation, it can be useful to compare it to another situation in which there are similarities. This approach can be helpful when comparing two instances of systemic injustice. The best way to do this is by describing the situations, conducting an analysis of the situations, and then forming opinions about the situations as well as discussing hypothetical ideas about what should have occurred. Then it can be determined if the situations are at all similar. The use of this comparative approach can bring about broader conclusions that further the understanding of each situation.  

Now with this in mind, we can look at two real-world situations that involve systemic injustices. One of the situations involves the relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico. The second situation involves another relationship but abroad in India between the government and a religious minority. These two situations will be presented and analyzed. Then differing opinions on the situations will be presented as well as thoughts on what should or should have occurred. Finally, after careful analysis and comparisons, we will be able to answer a few questions. What kind of systemic injustices are these examples? Are both examples of systemic racism? If not, then what are they examples of or are they something more complex? 

The first situation is an ongoing instance of systemic injustice involving the United States and its unincorporated territory Puerto Rico. An unincorporated territory means that Puerto Rico is under the control of the United States and is granted fundamental human rights, but not full rights granted by the U.S. Constitution. Puerto Rico is at the mercy of the U.S. for its needs and survival. The island was hit by Category 4 Hurricane Maria in 2017. Thousands of people died and there was 90 billion dollars’ worth of damage. For context, Puerto Rico’s GDP in 2016 was 103 billion dollars. The island of Puerto Rico now depends on the U.S. for economic aid. Congress has approved 20 billion dollars of aid but only 100 million has been spent since 2017 which is less than one percent. This is highly unusual. States within the U.S. have suffered from national disasters in recent years and those states have received most of their allotted economic aid.    

The second situation is also an ongoing instance of systemic injustice, but it is occurring abroad in India. This instance involves Sikh farmers and the Indian government. Problems arose when the Indian government passed new legislation that would drive down prices for crops thus driving down profits for Indian farmers. Sikhs live in the Indian state of Punjab which comprises 3% of the nation’s land but produces 50% of India’s surplus in crops like wheat and rice. The fears among Sikhs are that the laws will drive their industry into the ground and will allow larger corporations effectively to buy them out. Sikh farmers began peacefully protesting the new legislation. They began to ride to the capital of India, New Dehli, and demonstrated outside of the city. The situation took a turn for the worst when the Hindu nationalist government began to discredit the movement with religious bigotry. The Indian government began to label the Sikh protesters as radical people who want to secede from India and create a Sikh nation state thus spreading fear throughout the population of a new violent uprising.    

Farmers take part in a rally as they continue to protest against the central government’s recent agricultural reforms, in New Delhi on January 26, 2021. (Photo by Sajjad HUSSAIN / AFP) (Photo by SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP via Getty Images)

Now we can analyze each situation and determine why these two situations are systemic injustices. The unequal treatment of Puerto Rico can only be attributed to the relationship that it has with the United States and its constitutional ambiguity. A territory works as the Other in this relationship or slave in a master-slave dynamic. The systemic injustice is one of unequal treatment to territories in need of help compared to U.S. states. Identity also plays a role in this treatment. The people of Puerto Rico are native Spanish speakers and racially diverse. Two things that are different from most states and completely different from those that oversee the release of this economic aid to Puerto Rico. This has had a devasting impact on Puerto Rico’s economy and has delayed economic recovery. 

The situation in India is also a systemic injustice because the Indian legislature and Supreme Court are using the system of government to tamp down on the nation’s reliance on Sikh farmers. Identity is at the core of this injustice. India is seeing a resurgence in Hindu nationalism that seeks to push down another religious group and uses economic means to an end. The Hindu nationalist government benefits by shoring up its support among the Hindu dominant population and large corporations get a larger hold over the farming industry. 

“…I know how brutal it can be…this has to end peacefully.”

Now that we know these situations are systemic injustices, we can begin to look at opinions on the situation and think about what should have occurred and what should happen to right these wrongs. For the situation in India, opinions within the Sikh American community have been very supportive of the protests. Yuba City, California is home to the largest group of Sikh farmers in the United States. In fact, the city has elected two Sikh mayors. Sikh immigrants from India have held multiple rallies in support of the protests. Some have even lamented that, “On one hand I feel glad I’m here, on the other I feel guilty I’m not there.” They also have thoughts on how the situation should be resolved saying that “I have family that was affected by the violence in the 80s and 90s. I know the violence that the Indian state can enact, I know how brutal it can be…this has to end peacefully.” What does a peaceful end to this situation look like? The consensus among the Sikh community in India seems to be negotiations that modify or repeal the legislation and a complete stop to the appeals to religious bigotry by the government. That last final point is in mind of many Sikhs in India and abroad. They do not want to see a return to violence.   

The situation in Puerto Rico is likely more accessible to a broader audience in the United States because it deals with an American territory. For the most part, there seems to be agreement that this wrong should be righted: there must a complete disbursement of the aid that Puerto Rico needs. After that is where disagreement begins. Some people in United States and Puerto Rico believe a federal investigation should be conducted but that does not seem to be getting any traction perhaps because territories have little rights compared to states with more autonomy. One solution that could empower the people of Puerto Rico is to grant the island with voting members of Congress instead of the current non-voting members of Congress who do not have the right to vote on legislation that could affect funding for their territory. 

With all of this information in hand, we can finally answer the question. Are both of these situations examples of systemic racism? For one, the India situation is definitely a case of systemic racism but it is less clear with the Puerto Rico situation. The situation in Puerto Rico could be brushed off as simple bureaucratic incompetence about a territory no matter the racial identify of its inhabitants. Perhaps this is a stronger example of classism in which citizens within states disregard citizens who inhabit territories. The citizens within states do not want to grant the Other with the same rights that they currently enjoy. There is probably a racial component to that thinking because the people of Puerto Rico are diverse and bilingual. However, this is still ambiguous therefore the argument of classism with racial undertones seems to be the strongest answer to the question.  

The government in India cannot be let off the hook. This situation checks many boxes: racism, religious discrimination, and xenophobia. The situation is also less ambiguous than the Puerto Rico situation because the appeals to racism, religious discrimination, and xenophobia are out in the open. Countless Hindu nationalists in India have used social media to broadcast these messages. A famous example of this was when an actress by the name of Kangana Ranaut sent out a tweet to her three million followers indicating that the Sikh protesters were terrorists. The India government has crafted a movement that incorporates legislation and cultural figures into the struggle. The Other in this are clearly being mistreated because of their ethnic and religious characteristics.  

This entire approach of comparing two systemic injustices has helped us further understand both situations. The mistreatment of Sikhs in India and the United States territory of Puerto Rico are open-and-shut instances of systemic injustices because they involve a government being used to mistreat an entire group. The ability to identify systemic injustices is a good skill to have but it is not enough. The next task is the ability to determine the type of systemic injustice. This is done by asking one question. Is this an example of a racist injustice? If you cannot determine an answer, then a helpful approach is to compare two injustices. In what ways are they similar and different? If one is clearly a racist injustice, then you should be able to spot similarities in the other injustice. Maybe the injustice is ambiguous but comparing it with another injustice can help further your understanding of the injustice and bring you to a more complex answer to the question.  

Dutt, B. (2020, December 09). Opinion | Protesting farmers are TEACHING India a hard – but much needed – lesson. Retrieved April 05, 2021, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/12/09/protesting-farmers-are-teaching-india-hard-much-needed-lesson/ 

Dutt, B. (2021, February 02). Opinion | India is at war with itself – and even Rihanna is noticing. Retrieved April 05, 2021, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/02/india-farmer-protests-polarization-rihanna/ 

Singh, S. (2021, February 12). The farmers’ protests are a turning point for India. Retrieved April 05, 2021, from https://time.com/5938041/india-farmer-protests-democracy/ 

‘This has to END peacefully’: CALIFORNIA’S Punjabi Farmers rally behind INDIA PROTESTS. (2021, February 08). Retrieved April 05, 2021, from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/08/california-indian-farmers-protest-sikh-punjab-yuba-city 

Timm, J. (2019, July 18). Fact check: Trump SAYS Puerto Rico GOT $92 Billion. they’ve seen only a fraction. Retrieved April 05, 2021, from https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/fact-check-trump-says-puerto-rico-got-92-billion-they-n1031276 

Twitter deletes Kangana RANAUT’S tweets for violating rules. (n.d.). Retrieved April 05, 2021, from https://thewire.in/tech/twitter-deletes-kangana-ranauts-tweets-for-violating-rules 

Yuehua Rong: So, welcome to our podcast and first we’re gonna introduce herself.And hi everyone my name is Yuehua Ring and majoring finance.

Mingxuan Yang: Hi guys, my name is Mingxuan Yang. I’m majoring in psychology, sophomore student in Ohio State University.

Lingyun Zheng: Hi everyone, my name is Lingyun Zheng and I am majored in mathematics.

Yuehua Rong: So we’re gonna talk about racism towards Asian. And before we talk about the cases we’re going to define what is racism.

Lingyun Zheng: In my perspective, I think, racism is a prejudice and discrimination directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically ones that is a minority or marginalized. 

Yuehua Rong: So, the reason we talk about this topic is because I believe that all of you have watched the news recently about Asian hate crime. And the murder of the case robber Aaron Alone. He killed eight people at three different Atlanta massage parlors. Some people argue that he’s killing motivation has nothing to do with racism. Well, according to himself. It told the police that he had an addiction to sex that filled his rampage, but denied any racial motivation, long said that he sees the spouse, as temptation and he wanted to eliminate.However, relatives of the victims indicates that they have always been operating illegally massage parlor, and has nothing to do with sex, but the truth is, he killed eight people, and six of them are Asian. Also, even a sex related massage parlor isn’t an excuse for clones someone who clearly has a stereotype for Asians, which he thinks that Asian massage parlor are all related to sex. What do you guys think of this?

Mingxuan Yang: Yes, you’re absolutely right. And although Long keep denying that he went. It is the sexual frustration led him to commit the violence. But when we look up the people, the type of people that he killed it. Because six Asian people are being killed, and also they are some excuses explained by the office Captain Joe Baker, who told the media you know press conference that a sexual addiction may have feel the crime instead Long had had a really bad day.So, having a really bad day. It’s a really. It’s a really funny drug to explaining for queuing like eight people. And also, I must say that, um, since the beginning of the corona virus outbreak. On some Western politicians dress China’s connection to the COVID 19 pandemic. So that Asian people especially the Chinese people become a target for racism. Some people will regarded the coronavirus as Chinese virus and will like play jokes like kung fu something like that.

Lingyun Zheng: I think the reason why so many Asian hate crimes happened in the US is partial credit to former president D T since he posted lots of inappropriate comments on his Twitter account and he pointed out that the COVID -19 has originated from Asia and he used ” China virus” to define COVID-19. what he said spark anti-Asian Twitter content and “likely perpetuated racist attitudes. Many people who support him believe what he said is right and more and more people think that it’s Chinese people who caused COVID-19. Many American people think that the COVID-19 restricts their lives. They are forced to wear masks and they are not allowed to gather together in public so they convert their discontent on Asians.

MingxuanYang: Oh, Yes, I cannot agree with you more. And Donald Trump as the, he used to be the president of the United States and the focus of the media figures, so his words can directly change or affected the opinions of the United States public and the even the behavior. So. Oh, yes, as the pandemic made its way across Europe and also United States North America, Asian people experience the series of verbal assault and also, even the physical harassment. A lot of Asian people indicated that they experienced the unfair treatment in their daily life and some of them even afraid to go outside or use the public transportation. Um, so take myself as an example, last year on April 20. There are about, 50 to 522,000 cases coronal cases in United States, which means it was very dangerous, and we must wear a mask so that we will not like suffer from coronavirus, and, and that a walking through the high street I prefer to buy some food in target and I met a man who stopped me and instead of me that, please not we’re mask. we cannot decide our Death life. Because God only God know that and also he told me, told me that they do know why the coronavirus happens. That is because of you, Chinese people, so his words makes me very uncomfortable. And it is a really.

Mingxuan Yang: Right. It is a very rare case for me, but it happens every day on United States, and Asia Americans suffer from the unfair treatment everyday it becomes very common, even though that like those European people were united states or North America people do not have awareness of that they are stereotyping, a group of minority or a group of people. But even though they are not conscious about that. This phenomenon happens every day, and lots of Asian people encounters, those unfair situation, and we’ll have the risk of being attacked, when they walk on the streets and they do nothing. so similar to this situation, it makes me think about 10 years ago when the aftermath of the September September, July was to southern New while we’re mostly are so when the Muslim. The group of Islam as the terrorist attack to the Americans, a building. So, at that time Muslims experienced the hospital treatment for a long time because American society became begins to consider the group of Islam a terrorist and regard the Muslims as a terrorist, trying to marginalize them and isolate the culture and the people who belongs to this identity.

Lingyun zheng: Yeah, you’re right, not only Asia’s and Muslim are facing discrimination, but also other races. The government’s inaction is also a reason why racism exists. Some policies that discriminate by race and keep people in poverty reinforce racist beliefs. Housing laws are a prime example of this. Many laws kept Black people from owning houses in certain neighborhoods, relegating them to lower-quality housing and preventing them from accumulating wealth. Society looks at this and believes it justifies beliefs about how Black people only live in low-income, crime-ridden neighborhoods.

Mingxuan Yang: Yes. No matter black people or Muslim people were Asian people they as the minority in the whole community they experienced a very unfair treatment and they are still retype  every day. So, according to the investigation, the Asian crime has the, the anti-Asians crime has increased this year to 150%. And a lot of people like makes slander gesture to Asian people and everyday Asian people receive threats. And they will they will encounter some really dirty words like I’ll go back to China, you’re so dirty and they, someone will like you add them in short shout at them to say something really rude words which makes them very comfortable and offend them, to a large extent, so that xenophobia becomes very serious and overt in the United States which becomes a very serious problem that we need to take some actions to, like, to stove it word to on to stop the stereotype.

Lingyun zheng: The reason why so many Asian hate crimes happened recently is due to jealousy of what Asians have achieved. Recently Asians are becoming richer and richer that leads to some Americans believe that it’s Asians steal their resources and wealth which causes their failures. I am going to use an example to illustrate that, if an Asian employee was promoted in a company, his co-workers will try to distance him and slander him behind his back. Asians are facing lots of injustices during this time.

Mingxuan Yang: Yes, you are right because it is a very obvious things that some Asian people are very talented and have very good ability and good at several fields like computer ,like social media something like that but someone always prevent them from promotion that is because, like, the stereotype, because of their race were because of, like, Where are they from.Um, so, So, returning back to our topic is this raises racism.Um, we have to say that.Although, it comes to be a very rare case, like like some white people attacked to attacked. To some, like Asian people was like very rare but I think it becomes more and more common in our daily life so we need to take a serious and to do some actions to like to do some actions to prevent them be more serious.

Lingyun zheng: It seems like those events appear to be accidental. However, the victims were all Asians so that it’s definitely racism. we need to work together to overcome this tough time. Thank you for listening and hope you have a good time.

Mingxuan Yang: Thank you.

Yuehua Rong: Thank you.

Work Cited:

Eliott C, Casey Tolan, and Amanda Watts (2021), What we know about Robert Aaron Long, the suspect in Atlanta spa shootings.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/17/us/robert-aaron-long-suspected-shooter/index.html

Kimmy Yam(2021), Anti-Asian hate crimes increased by nearly 150% in 2020, mostly in N.Y. and L.A., new report says. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/anti-asian-hate-crimes-increased-nearly-150-2020-mostly-n-n1260264

Nicole Hong and Jonah E(2021). BromwichAsian-Americans Are Being Attacked. Why Are Hate Crime Charges So Rare. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/18/nyregion/asian-hate-crimes.html

Sam Cabral (2021).Covid ‘hate crimes’ against Asian Americans on rise. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56218684

Hi, my name is Mara and I’m here today to discuss some instances where some racially unjust comments were made or posts were put out there, or actions that someone took and we’re going to look at these instances and see were these people being racist or were they just not educated enough to understand the connotation of what they were saying. So to start out we’re going to look at Rachael Kirkconnell, if you don’t know who she is, she’s from the show The Bachelor. I’m sure many of you have heard of the reality TV show or even seen it, but it’s a show that involves a single bachelor, and this year that was Matt James who is actually a black male, and that in itself came as a big surprise and relief as he is the first black male to be cast as the lead in the 25 seasons that the show has been airing, but we’ll discuss that issue later on in the podcast, but as the bachelor, he has a pool of women who he goes on dates with and builds a relationship with, and at the end of the season, he is expected to choose one woman who he wants to be with, and could potentially see himself marrying. And this year that woman was Rachael Kirkconnell, but after the show aired a social media post surfaced of Rachel attending an antebellum-themed college party.  In the photo from 2018 you can see Rachel along with many other sorority girls dressed in antebellum-style dresses, and for those of you like me that at first didn’t understand the connotation of antebellum. Here’s a little background for you so the antebellum era is deeply associated with racism because it was a time of plantations and slavery and the Civil War. So, it was obvious that Rachel could have come off as racially insensitive or racially ignorant because she wasn’t fully aware of what she was doing and she didn’t understand it was wrong, but I don’t know if we could call her racist because her intentions were not direct her intentions. I feel like she didn’t really have intentions, it was more of, she wasn’t aware that what she was doing was wrong but if she would have taken a step back and maybe thought about it and thought of the connection. She would have realized, oh this is wrong and I shouldn’t be doing this. So the two words, racial ignorance and racial insensitivity. These are two words that are interesting to look at because I think a lot of people could fall under these categories at some point in their life. And I think that maybe because not everyone understands what blacks have went through, or what they are currently going through in their struggles. I think at times these two words are better used for describing the way people act towards a group of a different race than the word racism, because to call someone racist is not a small accusation, because to me that being racist is being antagonistic towards a group of different race, and I feel that the majority of people are not trying to be this antagonist, but what they say, might come off that way, because they’re not educated enough to understand this concept or this injustice. I don’t think it’s okay for people to say oh I wasn’t educated enough on the topic, or oh, it’s common where I’m from, or it’s common where I grew up, because you should educate yourself. Educate yourself on our history in the history of different cultures, because people are going through suffering, and it’s important to know about this topic so that when you do encounter different cultures or different people, you know the right thing to say and you can be respectful enough to say the right thing, and act appropriately because no one should say oh yeah I’m not educated on that so it’s okay for me to say this, because it’s not you need to educate yourself on what is going on around you.  So I’m gonna take another quote from the talk show from the bachelor so I remember the host saying, all history is meant to be remembered, but not all history is meant to be celebrated. I think you made a great point there. I mean everyone should be aware of what has gone on in our past, but we need to be aware of what should be our focus now in society. We shouldn’t focus on the bad things and celebrate the bad things, that’s something that we need to remember so it doesn’t happen again because we need to learn from our mistakes and move past them, we shouldn’t bring them back up and celebrate them because those are part of our history. That was not great. It wasn’t good and it shouldn’t be something that we should be proud of. The past definitely has had a major impact on today and on today’s society. So, what does it mean to be black in America? I don’t think I can answer this question fully because I’ve never had first-hand experience but as I was doing research, I noticed a bunch of different encounters and things that were brought up, and it was a lot of recurring stuff so I’m gonna mention some of those.  When Matt James talked about the pressures of being the first black bachelor. He mentioned how he felt an extra level of scrutiny and it was interesting to see that he’s so critical of himself in making sure that he was able to adequately represent black men across the country. And he said he was careful of how he was speaking and how he represented himself because he didn’t want to come off in any way as threatening because that’s how black men are sometimes portrayed and they’re viewed throughout society.  Matt saying this, made me think of another instance that my mom had told me about probably about a year ago. So, she was out to dinner with her friend one night, and her friend has two younger boys, they’re probably like 10 and 12 right now, and they’re adopted, and they are black, and she talked about how she told her kids, that you can’t always do the same things your friends do, like, if your friends decide to hop over someone fence, you can’t do that because there are people that are racist and they will take action against you and that could end up harming you. So it’s not worth putting yourself through that chance of something like that happening. When my mom told me that that really, that hurt my heart. These boys, they’re so young and their mom’s telling them this at such a young age, and what have they done to deserve this. Absolutely nothing. So it just made me think about the words that we talked about before being racially unjust or racially ignorant. And when I heard that those words kind of went out the window because at this point that is being racist, taking action against a black person on purpose and knowledgeably doing that, that is being racist, you’re going out of your way to discriminate someone based on the color of their skin.  After all, there’s no biological difference between people, and no race is superior or inferior to another. They’re all the same. So, why are people still racist, what causes them to have this attitude or belief towards a certain person? I think one of the reasons is we hang around with people that are like us. So it’s normal to want to spend time with people that have the same interests background, culture, and language as you because it kind of creates a sense of belonging for everyone, and I feel like everyone needs to have that in some aspects of their life, but the downside to this is that it can also bring up differences between groups and over time this might lead to people thinking that their group is better than others. So how do we stop, racism, then? I don’t think we can ever technically stop racism I think it’s always going to be there. But I do think there are steps people can take to alleviate this issue, and that includes people learning about your communities, like what groups are there. What has been the nature of each of your relationships with these groups, and like what incidents have occurred in the past, that may be due to racial prejudice or racism, and I think it’s important for people to document these activities or at least try to remember them so that they can reflect on how they acted in those situations or see how other people acted in those situations. And I think it’s also important that people understand the depth of this problem. I mean it’s a problem that has gone on for decades (meant to say centuries), and while it has had some progress. It’s still, there’s still a lot that needs to be done to uplift the black community, and allow the people within the community to thrive within society and not have to fear, oppression within their own country.