Son Le ● Racism Toward Asian Americans in the US

 Click on the hyperlinks to direct to the respective blog posts.  "Asian Americans face rise in racist incidents" ● CBS News Report UN Normalize Racism Towards Asian Americans ● TED Talk LINE OF REASONING:  How Chinese Immigrants Helped Build the Transcontinental Railroad: ● HISTORY Article 'Today, I Am A Witness To Change': A Crowdsourced Poem Against Anti-Asian Hate : ● NPR OPTIC:  "Wings II" ● Painting Link to Lens Map Why did I pick this crisis?  As an Asian American, it is important that I seek knowledge about the ongoing concerns and issues within the United States. Specifically, Asian violence and hate continue propagate, especially within society and the established systems that promote discrimination. I picked the Asian American hate crisis to be more informed about the proposed actions to remedy the issues as well as to expose myself to the atrocities that are personal to my ethnicity and racial group. In addition, firsthand experiences with racism...

 Wings II ● Painting     O:  Wings II highlights a chaotic and blissful scene of a girl ascending in the form of a dove in a sea of redness and turbulence.      P:  Large circles dot throughout the piece with bleeding elements. The dove in the middle also has bleeding wings as it takes flight. Primarily warm and darker colors flood the painting with a few yellows and oranges to accent. Within the background, scratched marks create an ocean-like appearance that sits on top of a deep red color. On the side panels, porcelain vases, typically depicted in traditional Asian paintings, hold plants, with the left one drooping and holding less leaves than the right.     T:  Hung Liu, a Chinese American artist painted Wings II during a time of violence toward Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders in 2011. Being an immigrant herself, Hung Liu empathized with those struggling with their foreign identity in a Western world. As the Chinese...

 Asian Americans face rise in racist incidents ● CBS News Report     This CBS News report is one of many that displayed racist attacks toward Asian Americans within the past few years. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this was one of many reports I have seen that highlighted this issue, showing the hurtful discrimination many Asians endured while being out in public. At the time of publishing of the video, there "has been more than an 800% increase in racist incidents against Asian Americans reported in the last three years" (CBS). Through this coverage of these attacks, one can see the unconcealed prejudice that continues to affect Asian Americans today, which is an essential consequence of the discrimination circulating within the United States. By including this report, I hope to expand the notion of Asian racism pertaining only through exclusionary practices but via confrontational methods as well.     An unfortunate aspect of the common experience of racism is...

UN Normalize Racism Towards Asian Americans ● TED Talk      Sophia Nguyen shares a personal journey in navigating racism throughout elementary through high school. Being on TED during a turbulent time for many Asian Americans, I found her story captivating because of how she addresses the role of social media and the circulation of fear during the COVID-19 pandemic. What I find compelling about Nguyen is her being a teenager, which allows her to supply a perspective that can be related to by many Asian American adolescents today; this experience I find most relatable to me is why I chose her TED Talk to be among this collection of artifacts.     The importance of acknowledging perspectives from all age groups enables us to recognize how differently racism can take place. This TED Talk introduces the perspective of racism within school students, instilling an idea of discrimination at a young age. In the instance of Nguyen, she became conditioned to embrace nega...

How Chinese Immigrants Helped Build the Transcontinental Railroad: ● HISTORY Article     A piece of history that is beginning to become standard in classrooms is the contributions of the Chinese American immigrants, specifically their efforts toward the Central Pacific Transcontinental Railroad production during the Californian Gold rush. Learning about this in the classroom myself, it was clear to me that I needed to understand more about the concern with race and how it promoted the immense growth found in the West. Therefore, I read more into it through this historical article.  Lesley Kennedy's  History article prompted me to include this due to the thorough coverage of inequality and apparent prejudice toward Chinese immigrants working on the railroad's development. During the rush between 1848-1855, many white Americans opted out of working on the railroad, leaving to staffing issues within the Central Pacific group. With little participation from non-peop...

'Today, I Am A Witness To Change': A Crowdsourced Poem Against Anti-Asian Hate ● NPR      This crowdsourced poem brings a common, shared struggle among the American Asian community into focus by displaying the regular interactions one may face while carrying out their daily life. I found this poem during the height of the Asian Hate movement on NPR, where I often perused podcasts and news. I found that the nature of the poem's collaboration and effort from various individuals, compiled by Kwame Alexander , embodied the vast majority of those who suffered and endured discrimination and prejudice. As a result of its inclusive nature, it was important to incorporate an artifact that stood for a majority who experienced a common prejudice.      The artifact supplies a unique perspective on the situation by creating a sense of optimism and perseverance toward the end of the poem. The author achieves this effect through the lines "Today I ache" (Alexander 5)...