By Lotus Chen, Editor: Charles Montesa
On May 25th 2020 the murder of George Floyd poured fuel over the flames ignited by the global COVID-19 pandemic. And at the crossroads of these two events I sit as a Chinese American woman, who also happens to be from Wuhan, China—ground zero of a pandemic that caused close to 809,343 deaths globally at the time of writing. The connection between COVID-19 and China has led to a rise in Asian Americans being targets of racism, including myself.
The way I look and think automatically precludes me from selective groups, like from private discussions surrounding US-China politics. A former white landlady made the off-hand remark that my “dress and shoes are knock-off” without bothering to look at the tags. The situation quickly escalated when she emailed me offensive articles with headlines that read “Top 10 poisonous food imported from China.”
Being subjected to discrimination led me in act of solidarity with the Black community to join the Black Lives Matters demonstrations that have taken place near Monterey, California. Amid the rallies I became moved and emotional by chants like “Mom, I can’t breathe” and “your fight is my fight.” The rallies reminded me of the death of Chinese American Vincent Chin in Detroit on December 9th, 1982 which drastically transformed and rocked the Asian American community—discrimination affects everyone and this includes those experiencing homelessness.
In looking back to those rallies I reflect on what we can do to address racism and systematic discrimination experienced by those experiencing homelessness. A landmark study by social psychologist Anthony Greenwald of the University of Washington revealed how everyday implicit biases can manifest when one is tasked with making a subjective decision of another at their own discretion. Implicit biases can impact a number of seemingly objective decisions, resulting in increased disparities, an alarming fact that suggests biases need to be kept in check even with offering critical resources to those experiencing homelessness.
A survey by the United States Census Bureau already shows evidence of systemic economic racism in the housing sector—with the survey showing that 46 percent of Black Americans are owners compared to 76 percent of white Americans. Local governments need to keep into account race when implementing social homeless programs. A 2019 Homeless Census and Survey in Monterey County surveyed an unhoused population of 450 individuals. Of these 25 percent were Black American, 50 percent were white and 36 percent were Latinx/Hispanic. This demographic data shows race matters when talking about homelessness.
Changing systematic racism and discrimination is a difficult task, but we can take incremental steps towards this ultimate change. For instance, discrimination elimination could be deployed to mitigate the disparities the could result from implicit biases that could disproportionately affect persons’ ability to get quality social services. An example is blind auditions which were used in the 1970s by a major American orchestra in response to comments that auditions were heavily favoring graduates of top schools such as the Juilliard School. Despite not being considered with gender discrimination, the use of blind auditions led to an increase—10 to 20 percent to 40 percent—in hired instrumentalists who were women.
Yes, Black lives matter and so do those of the most vulnerable living on the streets, their fight is our fight and we must remain vigilant that the color of a person’s skin doesn’t prevent them from getting the help they need and deserve.
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