During the television airing
of the 2020 Grammy Awards
Ceremony,
Google
released
its new Black History Month
advertisement. The 1-minute
commercial titled, “The Most
Searched:
A
Celebration
of
Black
History
Makers”
demonstrates the amazing feats
Black people have accomplished
throughout history based on
how many people have looked
them up on the search engine.
The Civil Rights Movement
holds the spot of the “most
searched
movement,”
Maya
Angelou is the “most searched
female poet,” and so on.
I
personally
enjoyed
the
video. It reinforces the fact
that Black people have been
vital to American culture and
history
since
the
creation
of our country. It is a small
but powerful way of getting
the
recognition
we,
as
a
community, deserve. However,
it had me and other Black folks
wondering about the integrity
of companies who use Black
History Month as a marketing
tool.
This isn’t a new suspicion.
People are often wary of the
motivations of companies who
use Black History Month and
Pride Month to appeal to those
communities and sell them
products. This is because once
the month is over, the support
is wiped away along with the
exclusive
merchandise
that
comes along with it.
While it is nice that big
companies like Google celebrate
Black culture, they are not
successful in supporting their
Black employees. In 2018, Black
people made up a disappointing
4.8% of Google’s workforce,
while the population of Black
people in the United States
is 13%. In addition, multiple
former Google employees have
released
memos
expressing
the
hardships
they
faced
while
working
there.
One
former employee has even said
they, “never stopped feeling
the burden of being Black at
Google.”
This
situation
opens
up
a major conversation about
companies,
institutions
and
people
adoring
Black
culture while neglecting and
marginalizing
Black
people.
Black
History
Month
is
important, no one is denying
that. Year after year, people
take the time during Black
History Month to look further
than the prominent figures
like Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr., uplifting Black people from
our past that have done great
things to make a better future.
It’s a time of reflection and
celebration.
Further, there are calls for
Google to include “the good
and the bad” experiences of
being Black in America. While
many Black people excel in
their
respected
fields,
this
does not mean that the racism,
discrimination
and
violence
our group faces has magically
disappeared.
While
we
celebrate the greats, we need
to acknowledge that there are
systemic disadvantages Black
people face that stop them from
being able to become the next
great judge or heart surgeon.
But Black people deserve
more. We deserve to be hired
at companies that are making
strides to be anti-racist and
have equitable hiring practices
that eliminate racial biases
in the employment process.
We deserve to be present and
represented in history books
but also lecture in classrooms,
in front of and behind the
camera, serve on city councils,
and act as CEO at our dream
jobs. We are more than the
entertainment,
scientific
advancements
and
political
quotes we give to the world.
So this Black History Month,
if you plan on creating an
advertisement,
program
or
event celebrating Black culture,
make sure you move beyond
that and uplift Black people too.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Michigan in Color
Monday, February 10, 2020 — 3A
Coronavirus Epidemic: a Conundrum on
Chinese Imperialism and Xenophobia
News Flash!
You can criticize the Chinese
Communist government and
the
Chinese
imperialism
sympathizers
for
the
coronavirus
epidemic
while
standing against racism and
xenophobia, as you should.
For the past month, Asians
in the diaspora have been
speaking up against racism
and
xenophobia
they
have
encountered because of the
coronavirus
epidemic.
The
narrative that Asian folx are
dirty and diseased based on the
fact that coronavirus started
in China skews the perception
of Asians in the public eye.
For example, the UC-Berkeley
health center received backlash
by saying that “recognizing
any of [the xenophobic actions]
can be normal reactions.”
Yesterday,
a
man
in
Chinatown in Sydney suffered
from
a
heart
attack
and
people were scared to give
CPR because of the fear of the
epidemic.
Many
insensitive
memes about the epidemic
and negative connotation of
Asians have also surfaced on
the internet and around our
communities in the U.S. lately.
In reality, if you are currently
living in the U.S. and have
not been to China for the past
month, you are more likely to
catch the flu and die from it
than the coronavirus.
On the other hand, leftists
on social media, specifically
the tankies, have criticized
the racialization and are also
so quick to draw conclusions
that it is western propaganda
to report the epidemic in a
way that vilifies the People’s
Republic
of
China
(PRC)
government.
Whenever
any
political issue involving the
United
States
and
China
relations
comes
up,
it
is
exhausting to see that a lot
of diasporic Asian folx in
“leftist spaces” have such a
U.S.-centric understanding of
the imperial power in the 21st
century. I always have to let you
gaslight my lived experiences
as a Hongkonger before I
can chip in my two cents to
debunk your fake-wokeness on
China. The PRC government
doesn’t actually care about
the well-being of its everyday
citizens, it only cares about
economic stability so that the
ones who hold political and
economic power in China can
harvest their fruits of social
capitalism in the name of being
“communist.”
Let me be clear here, we
should stand against all forms
of
racism
and
xenophobia
and we will continue to do so
while living under oppressive
structures upheld by white
supremacy. Criticism of the
crisis control on the PRC
government’s end does not make
it acceptable at all for anyone
to make microaggressive jokes
about the epidemic or make
hateful comments about any
Asian people. This is not only
extremely
disrespectful
to
patients, everyday citizens and
clinical staff who are suffering
from the epidemic in Asia, but
it also feeds into the racist
narrative that people of color
are dirty and diseased.
In short, people who care
about social issues should start
having more intuitive thoughts
and discussions about the root
causes of these problems and
how countries use borders as
a colonial construct to impose
their nationalist agendas in
the 21st century. I am writing
from the perspective that I
have witnessed fear from the
epidemic
and
government
mishandling in the last few
days of my winter break in
Hong Kong and have close
friends
and
family
back
home who are terrified. It is
important to recognize that
I am NOT analyzing from a
diasporic lens. Today, China
is not a developing country, it
is an imperial power, actively
commiting
genocide
and
colonizing Lands in Tibet,
“Xinjiang,”
Sri
Lanka
and
countries
in
Africa.
Since
the Great Leap Forward and
economic reform in 1978, the
class
barriers
and
wealth
disparity we all witness in the
capitalist countries like the U.S.
can also be seen in mainland
China under social capitalism.
It is dangerous to think in a
binary sense that standing
against U.S. imperialism is to
deny Han Chinese imperialism,
when in fact they are mutually
exclusive. It is reasonable to
critique the lack of health
measures and policies in any
fascist, imperial country.
Here
are
some
puzzle
pieces I have gathered of this
epidemic:
During
2003,
the
PRC
government covered up the
SARS epidemic, until it spread
across Hong Kong, leading to
286 deaths confirmed in Hong
Kong alone. The SARS virus
is fundamentally the same as
the coronavirus in terms of its
root causes and biostructure.
It is reasonable for the PRC
government to take the SARS
epidemic as a lesson to take
more
preventative
actions.
However, PRC covered up data
and figures of coronavirus
for at least two weeks before
it
realized
the
escalation
and
eventually
declared
emergency.
While
food
culture
and
habits should not be mocked or
racialized, research has proven
that both the 2003 SARS
epidemic
and
coronavirus
potentially
stemmed
from
the wildlife markets. Medical
researchers
around
the
world have warned China to
stay alert when consuming
wildlife during the aftermath
of the SARS epidemic and
to establish heavier health
measures and legal actions
on
endangered
animals.
Despite
having
Wildlife
Protection Law in place since
1988 and last amended in
2003, many loopholes exist,
leading to failure in actual
implementations.
A few days before China
declared
an
emergency
in
Wuhan,
8
people
on
the
Weibo
blog
posted
about
the urgency and escalation
of
the
coronavirus.
Not
only did the local district
government not act upon it,
but they also arrested them for
“misinformation,” potentially
destabilizing the state, when
they were telling the truth.
These 8 people are still jailed
at this moment. Additionally, a
self-proclaimed Wuhan citizen
has publicly expressed fear
over the lockdown and anger
towards the PRC government
recently in a video.
Contrary
to
many
news
sources stating that the first
case
of
coronavirus
was
confirmed on December 31st
in
Wuhan,
recent
medical
research from the medical
school at the University of
New England has shown that
the earliest signs of human
transmitted coronavirus can be
traced back to mid-December.
Due to increased tension
between Taiwan and PRC,
China has prevented Taiwan’s
involvement in the World’s
Health Organization including
the international emergency
implementation
against
the
coronavirus epidemic. Since
the
geographic
distance
between China and Taiwan is
so close, this deeply impacts
Taiwan, as they do not receive
information
from
WHO
in
a timely matter or have any
say within WHO. China also
has close ties with WHO.
Diplomatic sources in Geneva
criticized the late declaration
for an emergency, suspecting
that the close ties between
China and the UN lead to biases
and questionable credibility of
WHO.
Since hospitals in China are
mostly occupied, high-speed
rail border entry increased
by 40% in Hong Kong last
Monday.
Many
rushed
to
Hong Kong last week to seek
treatment when most hospitals
in Hong Kong were already
overcrowded by an average of
113% in the first place, having
huge health and fire hazards.
Clinical staff in HK were so
frustrated that 3600 clinical
staff
are
unionizing
and
planning to go on strike. Chief
executive of Hong Kong, Carrie
Lam, described the medical
staff strikers as “using extreme
means to beleaguer Hospital
Authority.”
HKU medical school has
successfully
developed
a
coronavirus
preliminary
vaccine, but the Hong Kong
government
decided
to
withdraw $250M of research
funding
for
HKU
medical
teaching facilities due to the
Hong Kong protests. Public
hospital staff has not received
any
overtime
compensation
working overtime in high-
stress
environments
either.
To give you a comparison,
Hong Kong police, infamous
for its brutality for the past 7
months in Hong Kong protests,
has just received $950M of
funding from the Hong Kong
government
for
overtime
compensation last month.
To reiterate, speaking on the
PRC government’s failure on
health measures doesn’t mean
it’s okay for anyone to make
fun of this epidemic, but rather
get everyone to think more
critically of the root cause and
what is actually happening
here.
You
can
be
critical
of
a
government
without
being racist or xenophobic.
It is unproductive to twist
criticisms as U.S. propaganda.
In fact, while we are criticizing
the
health
measures
from
this epidemic, let’s also have
discussions on the U.S.’s poor
public health implementation
as
well,
especially
when
34,200
Americans
died
during flu season last winter.
Comparatively,
measles
is
one of the most common viral
infections in the U.S. since the
1900s largely affects patients
who are not vaccinated. Let’s
start
having
conversations
about what kind of global
changes in public health we
should be implementing as
we carry hope for our future
generations. If health crises
aren’t thrown onto a political
playground
by
imperial
regimes, we can be way more
productive
with
healthcare
systems and more cognizant
with epidemics. And to white
people
in
the
west,
next
time you joke about having
coronavirus when you cough
without covering your mouth,
consider asking yourself if you
have gotten your flu shot yet
this year.
SAMUEL SO
MiC Contributor
Beyond the ‘Most Searched’
CAMILLE MOORE
MiC “Off the Record” Blogger
Photo from GOOGLE
Photo from MACAU PHOTO AGENCY/Unsplash