The racism that this country’s history and present is rooted in is heartbreaking. To know that there are adults who are still teaching their children that it’s okay to be prejudiced is frustrating especially at a time like now, where we as a human race should be supporting each other. Every time we think as a nation we have taken a couple of steps forward we take another ten steps back.
With faith, I have confidence that this virus will run its course, and life will go on. But the same cannot be said for racial discrimination. As of now, over 100,000 people have died in the world due to COVID-19, and all some people can think of is how it originated in China. That doesn’t matter anymore; it’s a global virus now, not a “Chinese Virus” as our president so carelessly said. When our president says things like this is the “Chinese Virus” he must have forgotten that we have hard-working Chinese-American citizens in our country.
At the beginning of the virus, I asked one of my Asian-American friends if she felt a change in how people looked at her. She said that she did feel that people were looking at her differently. As an African-American in a predominantly white suburb, I have felt the feeling of isolation. Of being the only minority in the room. And of people saying offensive things to you with or without them knowing the gravity of their words. It’s a feeling I wouldn’t wish on anyone. This is why I’m ashamed to read on social media and see on the news, my fellow African-Americans verbally and physically attacking Asian-Americans. We are better than this. African-Americans encounter racism and hatred every day, we know the pain, so why are some of us helping fuel this unwarranted behavior?
As I’m writing this over 40,000 Americans have died young and old, Asian-American, Caucasian, African-America. The virus doesn’t discriminate, but we do. We are fighting a war out here, against COVID-19 and one can argue that right now, in America, we are losing. So why must we continue to fight a senseless war against each other?