A bite from a king cobra is deadly. Within minutes, the victim’s nervous system faces agony, followed by a cardiovascular collapse. In the end, the victim falls into a coma or dies.
Silently.
Why did I bring that up?
Because racism is poison. It permeates a community, a city, a nation and the world. It manifests itself in many forms from somewhat benign comments like “are my dry cleanings ready yet?” to a random Asian person to hateful racial bashing and sometimes even killing.
Like poison, racism can have different levels of effects. But when left untreated, a swollen ankle can turn into a paralyzed leg.
However, both poison and racism can be treated. And you know what the magic antidote is?
Speaking up.
A victim of a poisonous bite can get the necessary treatment if he or she screams out loud for help. But if he or she is unable to do so, it is the responsibility of others around to speak up. Being silent only leads to one direction.
My experience at pride idol was nothing short of a hazard to my health. Not only did the drag queen spew out strings of racist “jokes,” one judge even joined in the chorus of poison.
Luckily, someone spoke up against the racism last night where everyone else was too embarrassed to do so. What’s worse is that most probably didn’t even mind all the racist jokes and were just laughing along at the expense of the people of color especially the Asian community.
I don’t understand why people in our community especially the Asian community tolerate that type of behavior. I don’t speak on behalf of the whole Asian community but it is time for us to break away from our silence. Being silent only feeds the poison.
1 comment:
As a queer Asian American I feel like it is often hard to speak up even amongst other minority peers. To many of my other friends of color I'm too close to white and though I know they care about me as a person they often overlook the similar hardships the Asian community has gone through historically or presently because of the many so called "positive stereotypes. It has taken me 17 years to realize, acknowledge and to want to be a part of the Asian community. It's hard for us to ban together because the many dialects amongst other Asian cultures can vary so much making it hard to create coalitions or even band together as one larger community. This is often overlook because it is through peer to peer communication that we create community and coalitions. Other problems include accessibility, and in Boston it's hard to ban together to fight issues because for the last couple of decades if not longer Boston's Chinatown has been the victim of gentrification and modernization not for the good of Chinatown and it's people but for a more capitalized market. If you read many of the Asian American novels out there it is not our choice not to speak up but often times our voices are overlooked, drowned our or just unheard but that is slowly changing despite language and cultural gaps between other Asians and other cultures. No one likes the comments or stereotypes that go on but without the help of others in the community the Asian community can only go so far just like many other groups have helped Queer organizations or other people of color it our turn to try and reciprocate.
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