A Very Bad Day

 

The promise of America has always been somewhat cliched: “The land of opportunity” “Streets are paved with gold.” Or as Emma Lazarus wrote in part in 1883 in her poem The New Colossus: (In words now on the Statue of Liberty on Ellis Island as a welcome to immigrants)

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

For some these promises have come true.  Americans love to hear of the children of the immigrants or immigrants themselves who rose to become giants of American business or politics.  A few examples of immigrants are Sergey Brin, founder of Google (Russia), Hamdi Uluakay – Chobani yogurt (Kurd from Turkey), Levi Strauss – Levi Jeans, Germany), Madeline Albright – Secretary of State (Czechoslovakia), I.M. Pei Architect (China), David Ho, MD, AIDS researcher (Taiwan), Elon Musk, entrepreneur, inventor, Tesla, Space X (South Africa).

Some prominent first-generation achievers have been: Lee Iacocca, head of Ford motor co. (son of an Italian immigrant). Colin Powell, US Army General - 4 Star, Secretary of State, (son of Jamaican immigrants), Kamala Harris, Senator, US VP, (parents from Jamaica and India), Marco Rubio, Senator [R-Florida] - (parents were from Cuba).

These people made it through many trials to become what we call successes or proponents of the American Dream.  Few of us know what it took for them to make these achievements, but for each the story was different.  None of these people came from inherited wealth, so in some aspects, it might be said that they were self-made men and women. However, if you read their memoirs or biographies, each would indicate that they had lots of help along life’s paths as well as some setbacks. In short, they were stories of people who overcame obstacles, were smart, and became well educated to carry out their dreams. Unfortunately, their stories are not that for the typical American immigrant, even though it is true that children of immigrants typically improve the family status in life.

For many immigrants, they are “the other”, the unseen, the disregarded, the ignored members of society. They live with others from their regions, they mix seldom with the general population and they have little money, status, or political power in this so-called classless society. Often the immigrant does not have literacy in English and does not speak the language well. This inability to interact further serves to isolate them.  So, when demagogues decide to scapegoat their national origin, they have few tools with which to resist and often retreat further.

The Washington Post today highlighted the “very bad days” which happened in recent years in many other minority communities.  The listed the following mass murders:

“Time and time again you’ve seen some of the most vulnerable communities in this country threatened by this lethal nexus of hatred and unregulated access to firearms,” said Peter Ambler, executive director of the gun control advocacy group launched by former congresswoman Gabby Giffords.

He listed the targets of recent mass shootings motivated by prejudice: Latinos at a Walmart in El Paso. A synagogue in Pittsburgh. A gay nightclub in Orlando. A Black church in Charleston, S.C. A Sikh temple in Wisconsin.

 

The article went on to say “that these killings fit a pattern of racism and misogyny directed at Asian women”, …as well as the hate-filled gun violence noted above. 

Another Post article noted the following:

“The violent end to their lives has opened a window into the experiences of low-wage immigrant Asian and Asian American women in a stigmatized profession, and has ignited a difficult national conversation about race, class, and gender in the United States.”

 

Of course, it does not help the situation at all to note that the lax gun laws in Georgia allowed this young man to purchase a gun and walk out with it on the same day and use it to kill eight people. It has been said that he purchased this gun legally and passed a background check. If he had had a five- or ten-day waiting period, maybe he would have had time to calm down and not gone on a rampage. I guess we will never know, but I am tired of mostly young, white guys, alienated from society for whatever reason, getting guns and killing people without having any adequate brakes in the system to identify them and stop these repeated murderous events. As with school shootings, some people know these guys; these shootings cannot and must not continue.

The shootings in the Atlanta region additionally highlighted the plight of the working-class Asian immigrants. The worker in one of the spas had difficulty calling the police due to her poor command of English. The murdered workers were said to work 12-hour days with few benefits. The business owners themselves put in long hours to keep their businesses afloat.  Were some laws for workers disregarded, probably, but they knew their workers would also not be likely to complain. These were hard workers, described as such by co-workers and family members. These women were raising families under great stress but also sending their children to college. Small immigrant-run businesses help keep America in business; such labor practices are not only found in Asian communities or at spas. The New York Times did an extensive study a few years ago about nail salons in New York City and found that the mostly Asian women in these salons were routinely mistreated by their bosses and labor laws were seldom adhered to. Immigrants are exploited, mistreated, and sometimes trafficked in America, which is a sad commentary.

Many heard, as I did, the comments of the law enforcement officer who seemed to sympathize with the shooter when he quoted him as saying he was having a bad day; the victims will not have another day, what about them?  Would he have spoken otherwise had the victims been middle-class white women?  Does the shooter get to decide that this was not a hate crime when seven of the eight victims were women, and six were Asian women? Asians across the country have been speaking out against the violence they are seeing in their communities. Many claim this has been made much worse during the pandemic as Asians of all nationalities have been blamed for the COVID outbreaks, even though they might be from countries that also were victimized by the virus, such as the Philippines or even Thailand. In California, an elderly Thai man walking down his street was badly beaten and died from his injuries. It has certainly not helped that the former president and many of his Republican associates have repeated statements such as “China virus” and “Kung flu”, which were picked up and echoed by right-wing commentators and media.

I thought it was fitting that President Biden not only spoke out against violence against Asians in his national speech last week but also that he and Vice-President Harris went to Georgia this week and met with Asian legislators and families. They repeated their emphasis that this violence must stop. One problem is that data about hate crimes is not a required crime statistic for police departments, so according to the FBI, more than 90% of the departments reported none. The Guardian noted that according to 2019 statistics, anti-Asian violence was only about 5% of the almost 5000 reported crimes, while anti-black violence was 48.5% and anti-Hispanic attacks were 14.1%. Many acts are not reported; as the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum indicated that their records show that 50% of Chinese women and 64% of Korean women had experienced slurs in public. Younger Asian women frequently mention the catcalls they receive walking down the street and the sexual comments they have to endure; they seldom report such harassment. Stop AAPI Hate, a recent group formed to combat such public attacks and violence is hoping to use the events in Georgia to educate others on what is happening and how it must be stopped. They have tallied over 3800 incidents in the last year alone. (AAPI =Asian American Pacific Islanders)

What must be said is that America is so much better than these actions. I was hopeful this summer when I saw rallies of diverse people marching with the Black Lives Matter protests. There should be no room in this big country for attacks against any minority group, ethnicity, or religious group. There should also not be any room for attacks on women, gay or transgender people. America is a diverse, but still majority-white country. According to the census in 2019 – Whites are 76%, Hispanic or Latino, 18.9%, Black (AA) 13.4%, Asian 5.9 %Native American or Hawaiian, 1.5%. (Multiple races/mixed races) 2.8%. Since white people are still the major race in this country, we have the bandwidth to make things better for everyone else. 

You know many of the appeals from the former president pushed the narrative that the minorities were taking over and taking the jobs which belonged to white people or bosses were sending their jobs to China and Mexico.  These conversations create divisions and were meant to do so. As Americans, we need to turn the conversations around and ask how we can all solve these issues together. We are much stronger when we can present a unified front to those who would cause harm to our country. Both Putin and the Chinese government have made much of our divisions; they would love to see them continue.

***********************************************************************************************************

COVID stats – NY Times 3/20/21

Total US Cases: 29,842,300. Total New Cases: 54,631.

Total US Deaths: 541,631.     Total new deaths: 773.

Total Maryland Cases: 399,016.  Total new Cases: 1,118.

                        Total deaths: 8,158. Total new deaths: 26.

The state of Maryland has opened more portions of the state in the last few days; case numbers are rising now. We shall see if this was premature. Certainly, watching thousands in crowded Miami streets, bars and beaches this week is worrisome; the mostly young crowds acted as if there is no COVID pandemic anymore. I fear another spike in a few weeks, even as vaccination numbers are approaching one-third of the country.

**********************************************************************************************************

Well, after this week, how about another look at the panda?  We can use some light entertainment.

‘Til next week, Peace.