Virtue signalling is not enough, real changes require real actions
As the turmoil continues, my social media feeds are now filled with #blacklivesmatter and #whitepriviledge. As a member of the "neutral" racial community, I did what we do every time there are such conflicts. Sit back and talk shit, in private. However, as the movement spreads across different social circles, corporate America and its CEOs are now publicly making statements meticulously drafted by their world-leading PR team. As a "visible minority" CEO of a company with a good portion of visible minorities, the pressure of making a public statement is getting stronger and stronger. And this morning, I cracked.
I cracked not because I woke up with a new conscience. I didn't. I'm used to this shit. It happens every other day and once in a while, it gets on tape. People get pissed off, some people come out to say something nice and after a few days, we move on as if nothing ever happened.
And I certainly didn't crack because I feel obligated to come out and say something "nice". I won't. In fact, I cracked because I'm tired of reading feel-good stories of police hugging protesters, tired of reading PC politicians marching with the crowd, tired of reading white people's self-guilt and black people spamming #whitepriviledge as if we just discovered that not all people are given the same chance. And I'm sick and tired of CEOs using this opportunity to humble-brag about how they have an X% of token workers. Because that is the most stupid and most ironically racist shit I've ever seen. Imagine working your ass off your entire life just to be hired as a quota and not because of your competence.
I cracked because, despite all these attentions and reflections, the actual solutions are nowhere to be found. People are too busy taking stances and pointing fingers at each other. Some say police brutality is institutional racism, the others say most police are good people, it's just a bad apple. Some say, it's racism that triggers the looting and the others say it's the looting that reinforces the racism. Some say eggs came before chickens, some say chickens laid those eggs. Where is the voice of reason that says hey, maybe it's both? Maybe there are serious problems with the criminal justice system but there are also serious problems deeply rooted within certain communities and individuals? Maybe the solutions are not just about social justice but also individual responsibilities?
As a second-generation Chinese immigrant who grew up in poverty with a single mother, lived through racism, experiencing prejudice; who also have seen my own community and myself dish out racist remarks and hold prejudice against other communities; can perhaps, share my perspective and hopefully offer some solutions that might be helpful.
But first I would like to clarify that I'm not suggesting that the experience that I have lived through is better or worse than anyone else. Racism, poverty, and any other hardship is not a competition. If any keyboard SJW wants to point out that I don't know how hard it can be as an X race living in Y neighbourhood. You are right. And I'm not going there. Instead, I will use my own community as an example and hopefully, the smart ones can extrapolate. Because who knew, that in today's day and age, we might be losing our freedom of speech because certain p****e(s) feel offended.
Individual responsibility
As suggested previously, if we want to actually solve the problems, we need to admit that this is not just about social injustice. We need to have the courage to look at ourselves as individuals and as communities and realize that we might also be part of the problem.
On an individual level, if we are underprivileged, rather because of our ethnicity, or because we are short, fat, crippled, or even worse, dumb, we need to stop playing the victim. Because what we get from being victims is people's sympathy. And that, unfortunately, is worthless.
So the best thing we should do when we are underprivileged in any shape or form is to recognize the challenges and if possible, be the counter-example against stereotypes and prejudice.
For instance, I love white women, but statistically, white women don't love me back. Why? Because the stereotypical Asian men do not fit the checklist of an ideal male mating partner. Confidence, assertiveness and charisma are generally not used to describe an Asian man. Is this prejudice? Can I argue that it is the result of how western media perpetrated Asian men for generations? Sure. But is it also true that most Asian men are quiet, reserved and sometimes even timid? While questioning these social issues is important, the ultimate question as an individual is "How da fuck do I get into Sylvie's pants?"
I can protest against Hollywood. I can demand social changes. And even worse, do nothing but complain about white women. But those things don't really get me anywhere closer to my ultimate goal. The only thing I CAN do is to change my own behaviours. And be confident, be assertive, be charismatic, be different from the stereotype.
We need to realize and accept the fact that we cannot change the perception of the others about who we are, without changing who we are. And as we continue to improve ourselves individually, we will inevitably become a representative member of our community. And slowly but surely shift the perception of the others on a bigger scale.
Community Issues
As a community, we need to stop the bullshit and acting like we are not responsible for creating and reinforcing the stereotypes. Culturally, we don't value independent opinion, we are brought up with the Confucius ideals of being reserved and respectful of authority and the elders. We value education but fail to respect individuality.
Growing up listening to rap is acting black. Playing hockey is trying to be white. Having an outgoing personality is being a Banana: yellow on the outside and white in the inside. I cannot count the number of times when my parents' friends told me I wasn't a real Chinese because I was a troublemaker with shitty grades in highschool.
And then we wonder why there are so few Asian athletic stars? Why we are so underrepresented culturally? Why we proportionally pay the highest taxes in North America but have almost no political representation. I tell you why. Because when taxation without representation happened to White people, they took over the fucking country instead of "not willing to cause trouble".
So if we want to end prejudice against our community and our people, we need to stop bullshitting ourselves and our kids. We need to stop telling our kids that the only way to succeed is to become a doctor and an engineer. And the only way to get into a good school is through SAT and piano. We need to stop telling our kids to avoid trouble and be a snitch when bullied by Brad and Chad. We need to tell them the truth which is "Ignoring them will only make you weak. You want respect, you need to fight for yourself. And Stephanie might find you courageous enough to go to prom with you. So stop crying and get Tyrone to go with you. "
Because at the end of the day, we cannot change the perception of the others about who we are as a community, without changing who we are as a community. And as our community becomes more powerful and more influential in all aspects of life, we will inevitably become more relevant thus giving us the ability to make actual structural changes to our society. We really don't have to look far for great examples.
Social Problems
As a society, we need to recognize that certain communities are underprivileged, not necessarily because of their individual and cultural differences. We need to admit that the rules are favouring the Haves vs the Have-Nots. We cannot forget the historical racism that led to where we are today.
But we must move on. Dwelling on white privilege, tall privilege, male privilege, beauty privilege, will only distract us from focusing on the actual problems. Instead of feeling "guilty" about your privileges, and take the shortcut with shitty memes and endless social media virtue signalling, we need to actually take the time to learn the mechanisms of our society and understand how policies can impact the current social dynamics.
We need to understand that we cannot eradicate racism and prejudice by being virtuous and pretend that we don't see colour. While individuals and communities tackle their own issues, we need to address the systematic problems that created and continue to reinforce the disadvantaged environments.
We need to address real issues such as economic inequality. As money representing resources is a prerequisite for any impactful change. Without economic empowerment, everything else is bullshit. It is not a coincidence that the most underprivileged communities also happens to be the least prosperous and most prone to crime. If we want social stability and equality, we must first level the playing field for economic equality through better education.
From there, we can observe that the funding for the public school system needs serious reform. If half of the funding comes from local property taxes, it is inevitable that impoverished communities will end up in a vicious cycle. Properly funded public schools are important but we all know that education doesn't end at school. That's where community leaders need to support after school programs to keep the kids off the streets.
Families also play a crucial role in upbringing. Single-parent families are much more present in impoverished communities which are often caused by higher levels of crime. This leads us to criminal justice reform. We need to ask ourselves, are police officers bad people and corrupted? Or is it the lack of oversight and transparency in the system that leads to bad behaviours? Do we want a criminal justice system to punish or to re-educate?
And the list goes on. Which means there are actually a lot of things that can be done. If we are in the position to conduct any changes today, great. If we aren't, the least we can do is to actually inform ourselves about policies rather than rhetorics. So that we can hold the elites and policymakers accountable for what they do and Not be satisfied with sensationalism. Ask the celebrities who changed their profile picture what program they support? Ask the politicians who marched on the street which bill they proposed? But if we continue to take the easy route by siding with the Left or the Right; by being swayed by slogans and emotional rhetorics; by evaluating decision-makers by the ability to campaign rather than their ability to make policies; then nothing will change.
At the end of the day, the world isn't fair. From the second we are born, our family, our community, our country, our physiques have already determined our advantages and our shortcomings. An innocent man from an underprivileged community was murdered by a racist in the position of power. We can use the momentum to push for real social reforms, or we can pat ourselves on the shoulder for virtue signalling. We can continue to play the blame game and fortify our stance, or we can take the opportunity to honestly and critically evaluate the behaviour of our own communities. We can continue to play victims and feed off sympathy, or we can take the individual responsibility to challenge the prejudice by bettering ourselves. We can continue to address racial inequality as a moral issue and be content with social approval, or we can actually tackle the root causes to drive real change.