Racism, implicit or unconscious bias, are hot topics, for good reasons. One of the projects that I do training and write issue briefs for has asked us to include how culture and race impact the choices that people make. It causes me to stop and think, and rethink.
I am trying to plan a little get away this summer. We will both be fully vaccinated, as safe as we can be - but I don't want to risk infecting someone else. So I emailed a couple of people recently to ask if they had been vaccinated, if they were up to a visit. One didn't bother replying, I won't bother visiting, another person replied with concerns about the vaccine saying, "I don't want to die from the China Virus, and I don't want to die from an allergic reaction to the vaccine." It is someone I love, I have found myself unable to respond to the inherent racism of the statement. As violence against persons of Asian ancestry rises in the country, this is simply unacceptable, cross one more person off the list of people I won't go out of my way to visit.
I catch myself from time to time. Recently I struck up a conversation about the birds along the swamp trail with an unfamiliar person. I asked "if he lived nearby" and then stood there thinking to myself, that could easily be interpreted as "you don't look like you belong around here." Not what I meant, but it could easily make someone feel unwelcome.
I will keep working on being a better person. Raising the unconscious to the conscious is a critical first step.
Three months, into the year, an update on goals.
I am reading books at twice the pace I expected, I am getting my daily walks in and keeping a journal of my walks, I am blogging daily, I am adding lots of photos to the archive, learning a few new birds, I need to be more active reaching out to people, I need to write more stories. For work I have done a couple of interviews for YouTube, kinda fun.
My work calendar for April and May are a zoo, lots of work, lots of interesting things going on.
Since it looks like the vaccine will open up now for all in April, I have a connection to get the vaccine. If all goes well, I will plan a trip up to Provincetown for a nice long trip, to visit a friend. No major trips abroad... alas, so many aren't letting US people in yet, and not sure about Rehoboth Beach yet either.
ReplyDeleteI have never been to Provincetown, I will have to do that some day
DeleteI'm so glad you have lots of interesting things going on this month. Very cool that you're doing YouTube interviews. Have you done that kind of thing before?
ReplyDeleteThe interviews, just a couple, and I am still learning to look at the camera.
DeleteNo, I wouldn't be visiting either person. We have Spanish Flu that did not originate in Spain. We have had Hong Kong Flu, and I don't the history of that. If it called the China Virus, and yes I know what a pejorative term it became, it is still not an unreasonable name. Sadly the only people who do say China Virus, use it in a loaded manner.
ReplyDeleteThe first reported cluster of cases of COVID 19 was in China, we really don't know where the virus first passed from the wild into human beings. Getting to "patient zero" is illusive unless detection and tracing starts very early in the progression.
Deleteignorants deserve to be shunned. we all need to be more "woke" to other people/issues.
ReplyDeleteAgree, I am far from perfect, but working on it step by step.
DeleteYou're right, we all need to be self-aware about our unconscious biases and racist (etc) ideas imbibed along the way. It's an ongoing process and no one is immune.
ReplyDeleteTogether we will make the world a better place
DeleteIt's funny the things we say, and then realize how it may sound to someone else. But, you live, you learn, you do better. That's how life works.
ReplyDeleteWe are works in progress, hopefully making progress
DeleteBest to stay away from some people. It's a shame but that's the way it is right now.
ReplyDeleteThe politics of the past few years have really been revealing
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