Transcendients: 100 Days of COVID-19

DAY 99: RAGE 

Everywhere

Once again, during a global crisis, systemic racism has erupted. The truism “in times of trouble you will find out who your real friends are” has been tested as the pandemic places stress on the ways friends, neighborhoods, community, the nation, and world treat racial differences.

Even living in Hawai‘i, where Asians make up a significant majority, I feel the outrage of Asian Americans. My mother talks about the insidious name-calling and heart-wrenching behavior of people she knew during the outbreak of World War II, and we must not forget the resulting incarceration of all Japanese Americans living on the west coast. I thought hateful behavior like that would not resurface, but this pandemic has brought out the worst in people and points to a reality that still exists. Racism attacks one’s very core. Shouldn’t we exercise solidarity instead in this time of crisis?

#rage