Final Project

Raven Dickson 

Prof. Cacoilo

Acts Of Resistance

22, April 2020

Final Project - Mental Health Awareness Zine

   The topic of my semester project is mental health awareness and my final product of the project is a mental health zine. I chose this topic because I’m a passionate advocate for mental health and want to pursue a career in Clinical Psychology, which involves working with patients that have mental disorders. I’ve personally been battling with my mental health since I was 14 and know of people in my life who are battling it too, especially during the recent events of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. My target audience for this project range from young adolescents to adults. According to the Mental Health First Aids, it’s stated that “Half of all mental disorders begin by age 14 and three-quarters by age 24”(Mental Health First Aid "5 Surprising Mental Health Statistics" 2019). I wanted to provide as much information, resources, and awareness as possible since there was a lack of that during my early teen years.

I chose to create a zine as my outreach in advocating for mental health because I see art as a form of therapy and creative expression. I'd use it as a way to cope with my emotions at times and express thoughts that are too overwhelming to say aloud. I wanted to visually showcase relatability to the audience of what could cause emotions such as stress to occur, how it can fester, and take a toll on your mental health without proper help. For the distribution of the project, I believe that it’s a creative, convenient, and effective way to share information with others. In prior to the quarantine lockdown, I planned on sharing my project by having a certain amount of physical copies of the zine made, having a digital version of the zine made to share on all of my social media platforms, and promote it to the psychology departments and clubs on campus. Now due to the current circumstances, we’re in, I would create a physical re-edited version of the zine, scan the pages if possible, make it into a PDF file, and still share it on all of my social media platforms especially since everyone is on it now more than usual.

Clouds are the overall aesthetic for this zine because of how they symbolize wandering thoughts and emotions, specifically low ones. I personally dedicated this zine to my family, friends, peers, and anyone who struggles with their mental health. I also dedicated this to my younger-self since this is something I would give to her to help comfort her, inform her of mental disorders, and encourage the importance of taking care of your mental health. 

Cover Page

The first portion of the zine is a visual personal narrative based on my experiences of dealing with mental health. I have illustrations of different types of clouds in parallel to collages I’ve made to represent the mood of them. Throughout the narrative, there’s the progression of how my negative emotions could fester and how it’s expressed (i.e: Pages 6 & 7 with the rainclouds to encompass sad and sullen emotion). To conclude the narrative, I illustrated a transparent umbrella that's coming from a storm and entering the clear yet cloudy weather. It symbolizes how you'll have those days when you get swamped in the storm of negative emotions but it won't last long for there is hope in conquering it and seeing the brighter days.

The second portion of the zine is facts about other mental disorders. The ones I’ve included are Anxiety Disorders, Depression/Mood Disorders, Dissociative Disorders, Personality Disorders, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. The information is provided by some of the 10 sources I’ve listed for the project overall.

The third portion of the zine is related to different coping mechanisms for dealing with symptoms of mental disorders.

The final page of the zine is a referral list of various mental health resources such as organization websites and hotlines.

  This project was suited for my professional aspirations because it coincides with my future profession, Clinical Psychology. The project would be great for me to reference going into that field of psychology since it’s related to mental health; showing my passion, further knowledge, and understanding of the topic. In doing this project, I’m encouraged to contribute in taking a direct approach in advocating for this cause rather than doing so from afar like I usually do. As an artist, it provides me with more practice and experience with different art forms and experimenting with the concept of zines. I’ll also have new content created to add to my professional art portfolio.

  Although I have yet to distribute the project and receive much feedback, I’ve taken the need to change the form of the zine to still make it personal but more informative. I plan on making another version of the zine that would be easier to distribute, having fewer pages and a slightly different theme especially in honor of May being Mental Health Awareness Month. I’ll post an update soon.

5 Artists (That influenced or inspired this project & connect with the topic) :


1). Elohim (singer, songwriter, and producer)




Pictured on the left is Elohim herself and on the right is the album cover artwork of her EP BRAINDEAD


Links:

• https://www.thefader.com/2018/04/27/elohim-interview
• https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/dance/8542034/elohim-interview-producer-20-questions
• https://www.instagram.com/elohim/?hl=en

2). Edvard Munch (Expressionist painter)

(Pictured on the left is Edvard Munch himself and on the right is his famous painting titled “The Scream”(1893)


Links: 

• https://www.edvardmunch.org/
• https://www.edvardmunch.org/the-scream.jsp

3). Logic (rapper, songwriter, producer, and author)





(Pictured on the left is Logic himself and on the right is the album cover artwork for his single “1-800-273-8255” feat. Alessia Cara & Khalid)


Links:

• https://www.allmusic.com/artist/logic-mn0000829633/biography
• https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/logic-talks-suicide-prevention-hit-coping-with-anxiety-star-wars-fandom-205328/
• https://themighty.com/2017/12/logic-hospitalized-derealization-disorder/

4). Kirsty Latoya (Illustrator, Poet, & Author)





(Pictured on the left is Kirsty Latoya herself and on the right is her digital piece titled “Stress”)


Links:

• http://www.kirzart.com/about
• http://www.kirzart.com/portfolio
• https://www.voicemag.uk/blog/4824/interview-with-kirsty-latoya-artist-poet-change-maker
• https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/kirsty-latoya/how-art-took-me-on-a-jour_b_16620442.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAIlapEFH0BtZpEQCLlaAvDZeh3UoUmeNZba-Eu9bUfpr0VRS_obM_gCr8OG2cS86toYNvJBIvRHH8IOCDZ5N7K6WjYbbW3bFGGC6PEEncIMZZBvINThD-9C3aLxxna1l8XYxy7oiJNoM5O26hVUg8hd4xHv5yJoQmq6O6dnfr1Xp

5). George J. Harding (Fine artist and oil painter)




(Pictured on the left is George J. Harding himself and on the right is his painting titled “Happiness Projected”.)

Links:

• https://www.georgejharding.co.uk/about/
• https://www.georgejharding.co.uk/art/self/#&gid=1&pid=21
• https://klmpersonalproject2012.wordpress.com/tag/george-harding/

When planning this project the first person that came to mind as inspiration was the musician, singer, songwriter, and producer Elohim. Elohim is a huge advocate for mental health especially since she suffers from anxiety, depression, and panic disorder. She uses her music and performing as a form of therapy for herself and fans that may suffer from mental illness, reminding them that they’re not alone in battling it. Another musical artist that inspired me for this project is the rapper Logic. Logic grew up in a family that struggled with mental illness and addiction; music was his way to escape those struggles and tell his story whilst pursuing his passion. Within his career he has suffered derealization disorder, vocally expressing his own battles with his mental health and raising awareness of the topic in his music. What resonated with me with both musicians is how they used their music and lyricism to be vulnerable yet informative about the topic. In doing that it makes them extend relatability to their audience and that’s one of the goals I want to accomplish in this project.

    Secondly, the next set of artists that inspired me for this project range from painters and illustrators. The expressionist painter and printmaker Edvard Munch have repressed his emotions throughout most of his life due to the impact of his father who struggled from mental illness when raising him. He also endured the loss of his mother and sister from tuberculosis during his early childhood. In his paintings  he’d use color to set the tone and emotion of it along with the style of symbolism to showcase the meaning of them. Munch’s paintings reflected the deep themes and trauma he’s experienced in his life. Next, the digital illustrator, poet, and writer Kirsty Latoya use her passion for art to focus on addressing the various issues of mental health. She started battling depression when she was 14 due to low-self esteem and suffering from her chronic illness, Marfan’s Syndrome. Later on, as an adult when she lost her mother to Marfan’s Syndrome, she revisited her passion for art and used it as a form of therapy; creating self-portraits portraying how she felt which also resonated with others who felt the same way too. The last artist that inspired me was fine artist oil painter George J. Harding, who explores the universal portrayals of mental health in his work. Harding uses the style of characterization and ambiguity in his work to convey such emotions stemmed from mental illness and recovery from it. The aspect of all three artists that resonated with me the most is the approach of visual art therapy and self-reflecting in their work. When I was younger the ways that I would cope with my emotions were through writing and drawing how I felt at that moment. I found it therapeutic since I wasn’t comfortable with sharing how I felt aloud most of the time. In doing this project, personally, I want to utilize it as art therapy for myself but most importantly communicate those feelings and emotions to my audience so they’re able to understand.

   

3 Quotes:

• "What is important to understand about infrastructures is that not only does each person come to think about words and their respective fields of activity in their own way, but that their entire way, of anyone else As much as the words might be the same, the ways in which we've come to know various art and activism are deeply informed by the experiences we've had that put us into contact with them."- Nato Thompson, Seeing Power: Art and Activism in The 21st Century (2015)

• "For many decades the book has been the most influential way of arranging (and usually miniaturizing) photographs, thereby guaranteeing them longevity, if not immortality---photographs are fragile objects, easily torn or mislaid--and a wider public." - Susan Sontag, On Photography (1977)

• "What is written about a person or an event is frankly an interpretation, as are handmade visual statements, like paintings and drawings." - Susan Sontag, On Photography (1977)

Resource List

1. https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/2019/02/5-surprising-mental-health-statistics/
2. https://www.hhs.gov/ash/oah/adolescent-development/mental-health/adolescent-mental-health-basics/common-disorders/index.html
3. https://www.centennialmhc.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Myths-and-Stereotypes-about-Those-with-MH-Disorders.pdf
4. https://www.mhanational.org/
5. https://www.mentalhealth.gov/
6. https://www.who.int/mental_health/en/
7. https://www.cdc.gov/mentalhealth/index.htm
8. https://www.medicinenet.com/mental_health_psychology/article.htm#what_are_common_types_of_mental_illness
9. https://www.verywellmind.com/forty-healthy-coping-skills-4586742
10. https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/psychpedia/coping-mechanisms
11. https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/what-is-mental-ill

   In my project for this semester I wanted to add in some of the stuff that I am learning for my major here at NJCU. I am a fire science major and for this project assignment I have decided that is would like to explain more about how important fire safety is in this portion of life for the age we are in. During this age, late teens and early 20’s there are many teens that think when the fire alarm goes off, it is just a false alarm and there is really nothing going on. The way that I think about it is if there is an alarm sounding, no matter how often it may go off and just be a false alarm, there is a reason for the alarm to be going off. Although sometimes the alarms may have a malfunction, there is still an immediate danger. When this can become like a monthly thing, or even a little more often like in the college dorms perhaps, some people will start to take batteries out of the alarm remote heads, leading  to their alarm to not go off. The New Jersey Division of fire safety (NJDFS) has now regulated the new type of fire alarms. There fire alarms have a ten year guaranteed battery and they can not be taken out. The battery is now integrated into the system.

            The reason I had talked about the college student age is because of the seton hall fire. About 20 years ago there was a fire in the Boland hall in the seton hall dorms. There was a fire, and just like an ongoing problem with the alarms going off, nobody had evacuated, and there were 58 injuries and 3 deaths. This fire had drawn a big amount of attention to many camouses on fire safety in their dorms and even just in the schools. To this day, there are some survivors of the fire that had happened that still go around and will give fire safety talks about what had really happened and how they think college students should react.  I have added some fire safety suggestions in the powerpoint as well.

I have pulled up some facts and I had looked into them and I have come to realize that fires in a lot of houses the fire alarm systems look to be disconnected, or not even working. Checking your alarms monthly is very important and there should be people all about this stuff. When I think about it, the alarms that everyone should have in their houses go off and they are meant to save lives and limit the damage and losses to your property. The alarm can sound early and if it sounds early enough, the loss to the house and the lives can be limited greatly.

              

            There is another reason that I had chose this as well. There has been studies that younger kids have started sleeping through alarms as well. This can lead to all sorts of horrible things. So there has been companies that are experimenting making what is called a Personalized parents voice smoke alarm. This can help because the younger child can have a better chance at waking up for the parents voice at times than the tone of the alarm going off. In my opinion this is really important because as you can imagine, children and fires do not mix well. Sometimes children will get scared and will try and hide when there is a fire and that makes it hard on firefighters to find them as they may be in a closet or somewhere else. On a side note, there are also children that start to run back and grab stuff sometimes. They will usually try and go back and get a pet or even a gaming system as they don’t want to lose some of their most valuable stuff. 

Final Research and visual

Deborah Derozin 

Prof. Cacoilo 

Acts of Resistance 

Importance of the Growth of small businesses in urban communities

For my midterm project I want to propose the importance of the growth of small businesses in African American communities. As the world's population continues to increase, the population density in urban cities is rising much more quickly than in the suburbs. This phenomenon, known as urbanization, is playing out across the globe and has implications for agriculture, the environment, politics and energy use. Yet it also impacts new businesses. 

Emancipation and civil rights have allowed for businessmen to operate inside the American legal structure beginning in the Reconstruction Era and continuing forward. During the 1890s, thousands of small business operations started to open in urban areas. This was influenced by Booker T. Washington’s, college president, commitment to agricultural and industrial education which was the basis to his approach “The Problem of The Color Line.” The most drastic growth of urbanization came in the early 20th century, as the increasingly rigid Jim Crow system of segregation moved urban Blacks into a community large enough to support a business establishment. The National Negro Business League which Booker T. Washington, promoted largely opened over 600 chapters. It reached every city with a significant Black population. Booker T.  believed that black men and women who had mastered skills acquired at institutions like Tuskegee and Hampton would be recognized, if not welcomed, as productive contributors to the southern economy. He also believed that economic acceptance would lead to political and social acceptance. One of the things that was very significant about his approach was that Black people should not permit their grievances to overshadow opportunity. 

African Americans have operated virtually every kind of company, but some of the most prominent Black-owned businesses have been insurance companies, banks, recording labels, funeral parlors, barber shops, beauty salons, restaurants, soul food restaurants, record stores, and bookstores.

American cities in which blacks constitute a majority of the population, also called “black-majority cities” are on the rise. These cities include and are not limited to the core cities of metropolitan areas like Detroit, Baltimore, and Memphis as well as smaller suburban municipalities like East Cleveland, Ohio, Wilkinsburg, Pa., and Ferguson, Mo. According to a report published on Brookinkgs.edu by David Hashbarger and Andre M. Perry in 2019, “Black-majority cities (which include cities, towns, and other census-designated places) numbered 460 at the 1970 census, and 1,148 by the 2010 census”. And, as of the latest 2017 census estimates, “there are now 1,262 black-majority cities, an increase of more than 100 such cities during this decade alone.” Which means if this predication is correct, as of 2020, there would have been an increase of 100 black majority cities. 

Black owned businesses play a crucial role in the development of black communities.  Over the last few decades, Cities of mostly black populations have been burdened by high rates of unemployment, significant population losses, and concentrated poverty. According to an abstract published on research gate by T.D. Boston “Central-city unemployment and poverty are concentrated heavily in the low-income Black inner-city communities.” It has also stated that “These neighborhoods have been abandoned by businesses once located in and around the central business district and have been largely sidestepped by investors, who have favored developing businesses in more suburban locations.” As a result black communities seem to always be struggling due to lack of resources, abandonment and separation. 

Ignoring small businesses would be like ignoring the possibility for growth and change in urban communities. First, the growth of small black businesses allow for black business owners to be able to give back to the residents of distressed Black communities. Second, Black-owned businesses have allowed for more employment in urban cities. Third, Black owned businesses provide superior quality of the average job for black workers than those who work for white owned firms. Finally, it celebrates black culture and serves communities. 

To begin, urban business owners help to support the less fortunate in their communities. Substantially, blacks are underrepresented among business owners, but nonetheless there are a sizable and growing source of employment for Blacks. The term Talented Tenth was populated by W.E.B Du Bois, a powerful figure in the advancement of black people, for the educated elite of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The upper ten percent was supposed to assume responsibility for the leadership and advancement of the remaining 90 percent of African Americans. The emergence of the club movement among black women and other self-help organizations enabled more prosperous black people to aid those suffering from poverty and prejudice.

Secondly, Many African American business owners fund their own businesses due to the lack of capital which means a lot of the time they hire people from the community in which they can afford to pay. This would cause of the rapid growth of these businesses and more tendency to employ Black workers. These communities lack many of the attributes and capacities that typically are necessary for economic development but that brings forth room and possibilities for change. 

Lastly, Black owned businesses provide superior quality of the average job for black workers than those who work for white owned firms. We can trace the origins of today’s racial wealth gap to Jim Crow-era practices which segregated African Americans from higher paying jobs and homeowner ownership opportunities that ultimately prevented wealth building. A large portion of the workforce in Black-owned firms is drawn from low-income inner-city neighborhoods.  If more black businesses hire black people the wage gap can become decreasingly less significant. 

Entrepreneurship is nothing new in the Black community. Black people have historically worked hard to establish, maintain and grow their own businesses to cultivate an economic base in providing goods, products and services to consumers. The Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey through his Universal Negro Improvement Association taught economics is a key component of Black survival and prosperity in America. He taught Black America to “spend your money among yourselves, build an economic system among yourselves and unite to pool your resources.”

Despite obstacles including lack of access to capital, resources, connections and at times inconsistent support from the public, the entrepreneurial spirit continues to be alive and well in Black America. According to a recent survey of more than 2,700 small businesses conducted near the end of last year by small business financing company Guidant Financial and online credit marketplace LendingClub Corporation, African American businesses grew by more than 400% in 2018 as compared to 2017. The pleasant surprise, That growth is being fueled by women.  The number of Black female-owned firms climbed 66.9 percent, from 900,000 in 2007 to 1.5 million in 2012, noted the Census Bureau. Additionally, these 1.5 million Black female-owned businesses accounted for 58.9 percent of the nation’s 2.6 million Black or African American-owned businesses, the bureau reported. Of these 2.6 million in 2012, 109,137 had paid employees. 

In conclusion, The economic problems of the Black community can never be solved while spending most of our money with the people that live outside of it and neither would we be able to obtain control over our community as long as others own most of the businesses in it. As a Black women, entrepreneur I have witnessed importance of the growth of small businesses  in my community and how much of a difference it can make in the process to financial freedom. I want to encourage my people to buy black and consume black and that is the essential theme to my midterm proposal. 

Citations

Hine, Darlene Clark, et al. The African-American Odyssey. Pearson, 2018.

Harshbarger, David, and Andre M. Perry. “The Rise of Black-Majority Cities.” Brookings, Brookings, 28 Feb. 2019, www.brookings.edu/research/the-rise-of-black-majority-cities/.

JOHN BERGER - Ways of Seeing WAYS OF SEEING. waysofseeingwaysofseeing.com/ways-of-seeing-john-berger-5.7.pdf.

Thompson , Nato. Seeing Power: Art and Activism in the Twenty-First Century ...www.amazon.com/Seeing-Power-Activism-Twenty-first-Century/dp/1612190448.

Submitted by sreid on February 14. “6 Reasons to Support Black-Owned Business.” Green America, www.greenamerica.org/blog/6-reasons-support-black-owned-businesses.

Importance of Urbanization

Aaliyah Jay  is a 25 year old YouTube beauty guru with over 1.4 million subscribers on her self-titled channel, trending makeup artist, and a young entrepreneur,  She also has a significant Instagram following, clocking in at over 1.9 million followers. Jay always inspired me through her dedication, she’s a self taught makeup artist like myself. She learned from watching YouTube tutorials! She perfected her craft and turned her passion into a career. Major success on YouTube and several other social media platforms gave Aaliyah the opportunity to follow her dreams and begin teaching her own beauty classes. Aaliyah’s Flawless Face Seminars have been a huge hit amongst her massive fan base, and she has conducted several in her own city as well as traveled to other cities to give classes. She also has her own clothing line for girls with different body types called the ItGirl, empowering women.

She has a way of connecting through her fans by being brutally honest and being a relatable person. She opens up about her struggle with bullying in highschool and how it forced her to drop out and seek alternative ways to ger her Ged. Despite, her struggle she's very successful at a young age. This goes to show that even if you don’t take the traditional route, you can reach your goals no matter what, as long as you’re willing to work for it.

Jackie Aina

Quote 

“I’m gonna give you 100% honesty. I always have, and I’d like to think that’s got a lot to do with why my channel is where it is today, You have got to be out of your mind if you think, with the amount of time I put into the content I create, the money that goes into this equipment, the stuff that I buy to try for you guys as viewers… You’ve got to be out of your mind if you honestly think we should just do this for good merits and not reap any benefits”

As a champion for diversity within the makeup industry, one of the things that inspire me about her career is how she does so much to try and change the status quo on black women beauty. Aina argues that people of color are poorly represented and often ignored in the beauty industry, and has criticized makeup shade ranges for not being inclusive.

Hannah London

Besides being a makeup artist and media influencer Hannah also owns her own salon. Together,her and her sister combined their competencies with the aim to create a first class service that enables their clients to feel gracefully beautiful and confident. They specialise in offering male and female clientele overwhelmingly luxurious experience.

Umber Ghauri 

Umber is a makeup and visual artist who works specifically with and for LGBTQIA people and people of color. She specialize in doing makeup for all skin tone and all gender expressions. She has a weekend workshop series that focuses on decolonizing Beauty Standards. She inspire me by creating looks that challenge the gender binary and white supremacy, we can imagine a world where differences are not punished but celebrated.

Badgalriri

Riri is world’s richest female musician, she is a style icon and makeup entrepreneur. She inspire me through her work and dedication and she walking proof of what you go through does not determines what you become. I also feel like I relate to her on a personal level because we both from the Islands and love everything fashion.

Anthony Vinci


Professor Cacoilo


ART 263


22 April 2020


Final Project






The first and main part of my project is a zine. This zine is for my band Dignitary, a local hardcore trio. This zine is called “Why is Dignitary” a play off of the typical who is, the reason being because I want it to be more about why we want to do what we do rather than who we are. I know that this choice of words is not grammatically correct but really that is beside the point. The contents of this zine are extremely simple, within it is a brief rundown of each member of the band alongside a photo of us. After this comes the song lyrics. The activism comes to play with the lyrics, this is where to express is. Below this will be a photo of each of the pages, although this will not be exactly how they appear in the copies that will be handed out. An example of the changes to come, there will be more songs along with their lyrics, as they are currently in the writing process and I would rather not rush the lyrics.















The second part of my project is something that will be given away in a little bag along with the zine. This is a single panel comic strip. Everything that is displayed in the comic will be some kind of indicator of what it means but many people may not see it to have the same story as I wrote it out to be. The name of this little panel is “Uncle Barry’s Ute”. This name goes hand in hand with the song written by me of the same name although this is a song still in the process so the lyrics aren’t available yet. I kept this comic down to a single panel because I wanted the story told not to be for everyone, just like how hardcore music is not for everyone but also I wanted it to have different paths of thought. For sake of understanding where I am coming from with this I will briefly explain the story of the song/comic panel. It goes by the name uncle barry for a reason, this is the biggest indicator. The song is in the perspective of the nephew and this is why uncle barry seems like the big manly heroic figure. The wife on the other hand has a negative portrayal, as that is the type of perception he is influenced to have by his uncle. The rest of the story can be followed when the song comes out.








I have many inspirations for why I want to do what I am trying to do. Some of them I do not so much agree with anymore or even like anymore but the inspiration still pushed me to learn more, and it is always okay not to agree with people. One of my big inspirations is Henry Rollins, he was a singer of the legendary band Black Flag but with this aside he didn’t start from anywhere. He was just doing what I did working and trying his best and doing something without being particularly skilled. He also has many values that I agree with and some of the words out of his mouth have been almost lessons to me. Another two inspirations for me go together completely and these two are Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett. These two are part of Gorillaz, Damon music wise and art wise Jamie. Where they are tied in with activism can be shown with one of their songs that was released the night before Trump’s inauguration and this song is called “Hallelujah Money”. Some other inspirations just to list are Joan Jett and Debby Harry. Both of which have an immense history of activism and I have actually been lucky enough to have seen Debby perform in my lifetime at an unexpected show while I was away on a trip.




(This is all that is written as for my written part I want to relate to activism in the discussion)











Sources:


https://metro.co.uk/2019/12/10/debbie-harry-demands-you-stop-fing-the-planet-as-she-protests-climate-change-11617162/


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLCwUBpz-fM


https://ew.com/music/2017/01/19/gorillaz-hallelujah-money-inauguration/


https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/joan-jett-bad-reputation-shows-how-jett-defied-sexism-determined-ncna914801


https://www.biography.com/musician/joan-jett

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldm8mnn-ULI

Final Project

Racism Brought by Covid-19

My topic is to talk about how the pandemic of a worldwide spread disease came with much racism towards people of the asian culture. The fear that this virus has brought is people starting to become disrespectful to asian americans who have no fault because of the comeabout of this virus. From experience I have many asian american friends and the stories they will tell me is that whether they are on the bus, walking on the street or in a supermarket people will try to avoid them and give them looks. They are so fearful because what is happening they place the blame on Asians and start to victimize them and treat them with no respect whatsoever. This upsets me in so many ways because I have never liked anyone to be disrespected including people who I know and are in my life. Disrespect, intolerance, blaming people it is no one’s fault; yes it is understandable for people to be scared because of what is going on but do not tend to do negativity in this world. It has gotten to the point that fear itself is getting driven by the people and in NYC an asian man was singled out for wearing a mask.

The long history of asian americans fighting against racism has been for a long time. A person who stood up for many of the asian americans here is Andrew Yand who wanted people of his nationality to be part of the solution. He wants to share good thoughts and not dwell on negativity. Believe it or not this is not the first disease that asian americans have felt pressure and racism, after WWII asians have always been seen as a threat to this nation of a white man's policy. They were nicknamed awful names such as  “Yellow peril” which meant uncleand and unsuited for citizenship. As of now our own president has said this is a “chinese virus”, that is very disrespectful and just wrong. He does not understand how much paranoia and danger that puts chinese americans or any of the asian cultures. That is like putting a target on their back and putting everyone at risk. This only burns and hinders the real work of public health and disease prevention. 

Many evidence show that people who have expierenced racial discrimination suffer from poor menatl health and have a lower equality in life. The problem is stress and stress impacts the mind alot; it can impact the brain and make the human body suffer. As said by Dr. Lipton in his video of growth and protection there talks about how the human mind can suffer and what can happen due to the stress on the body. He also talks about thinking beyond our genes and how the brain is more than just an organ in the body. He is another person I look up to considering that I am going into this field. 

This project fits my portfolio because as a Psychology major all I want to do is help people, help them with their anxiety, help them and reassure them that there are nicer people in this world. Aslo it fits well because as many asian americans are going through this troubling time they do not have anyone to talk to about their problems or have an ear to lend and that is why I want to help those who feel discriminated by racism or just feel indifferent in any way.  

My message for my audience is to not place blame or inflict negativity. Why do that? Why reap what we soy later on? I want people to understand that we are one and together we can share positivity across and help those who feel bad about themselves. We don't need people to suffer from this because that affects many people. Being called names, being blamed for a virus and not wanting to go outside because they may be scared that people can abuse them. These are things I do not want to see spread across the world. 

How i want to bring this project forward is to create an instagram account where people can message me and just tell me how they feel. I am that random person who won't judge them and just lend them an ear. They can tell me what they are feeling, how their life situations are different and how staying at home has impacted them. 

Resources 

Taylor, Derrick Bryson. A Timeline of the Coronavirus Pandemic. New York Times, 2020, www.nytimes.com/article/coronavirus-timeline.html.

Buncombe, Andrew. Trump calls for protection of Asian Americans after his use of 'Chinese virus' blamed for rise in racism. Independent, 2019, www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/trump-twitter-coronavirus-press-conference-today-china-virus-racism-a9420191.html.

Jardan, Farrha. Asian man target of alleged racist incident at Wegmans amid COVID-19 pandemic. CNY Central, 2020, cnycentral.com/news/coronavirus/asian-man-target-of-alleged-racist-incident-at-wegmans-on-james-st-amid-covid-19-pandemic.

Leon, Adrean D. The long history of US racism against Asian Americans, from ‘yellow peril’ to ‘model minority’ to the ‘Chinese virus’. The Conversation, 2020, theconversation.com/the-long-history-of-us-racism-against-asian-americans-from-yellow-peril-to-model-minority-to-the-chinese-virus-135793.

The Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research. How Racism Affects Youth Health and Well-being. 2019, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/evidence-based-living/201908/how-racism-affects-youth-health-and-well-being.

Lipton, Bruce. Why is the system in our lives today supporting a fear and protection system? 2014, www.brucelipton.com/blog/why-the-system-our-lives-today-supporting-fear-and-protection-system.

THINK Beyond Your Genes. Dr. Bruce Lipton, 2016, www.brucelipton.com/newsletter/think-beyond-your-genes-july-2016.