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.