Why America Struggles to "Move on" From its Issues with Racism | Tina Pham | TEDxYouth@Jenks

one year ago the world health organization officially announced that the spread of coven 19 had evolved into an epidemic well today i'm able to announce that the coronavirus epidemic is even worse while we have closed on schools shut down businesses and introduce social distancing the united states still ranks number one with roughly 30 million total cases and 500 000 total debts according to cnn health so traffic gone wrong as a nation in adequate testing facilities the lack of compliance with social distancing and the downplaying of the dangers of the virus by our government officials namely former president donald trump has exacerbated the effects of the virus and unfortunately trump's suggestion of treating the virus with injection disinfectant is not viable evidently this problem doesn't just pan out with the chronovirus epidemic as we treat other issues such as reason with the same mentality as americans during the beginning stages of the pandemic like the long passage when in reality they're just getting started with harsh miscalculation their desire to move on to issues without addressing them proves problematic even and thanks to the united states phenomenal education system yvonne quite the end of slavery but the end of racism as school textbooks erase the history of america's bigotry from the long history of segregation to the japanese and tournament camps briefly touched in history class the united states has long displayed their desire to move on without addressing its past you can say hate crimes against asian americans have spiked 150 from the news of the epidemic according to nbc news but despite the constant insistence that this is not what america is about its history and the realization along place by people of color show that racism is deeply embedded within its identity so let's dust off our history books and find out how this way of thinking has spread next we'll take a look at the symptoms of this ideal and finally he'll try and look for a cure throughout your childhood the narrative of the american dream has been touted to us but what dream awaits the american who moved to the united states in the 1850s to pursue this narrative ought to be viewed as perpetually foreign to this day a dream always african americans who were friends with slavery 150 years ago and yet still fight for their lives and what dream awaits middle eastern immigrants who are so easily burned as terrorists spawned the event of 9 11. the reality is that racism didn't get better with the end of slavery the civil rights movement are even the election of obama's present and yet we often complete these small victories with races being solved psychologists asking robertson explains that when it comes to problem solving humans often expect there to be an angle to be met we evaluate and simplify issues so it's solution to be selected this makes it problematic for when we as humans try and solve an issue as systemic as racism which cannot simply simply be solved through one-off solutions so we turn to denial a 2018 poll conducted by the economist showed that 40 of white americans believed that black people would be as successful as whites if they simply tried harder ignoring the policies like jim crow and the redlining that create generations of poverty that still affect minorities to this day and there's a tragedy revealing that america's white supremacy is still alive only here this is not what america is about but we must acknowledge how america called the nazis imprisonment of jews horrific while forcing japanese americans into internment camps we must acknowledge how america deployed the military during black lives matter protests and yet none of the reading of the white house by rival rifle-carrying writers and we must acknowledge how america and we must acknowledge how a white man's bad day results in the talking of asian rhyme businesses the deaths of six asian women because when we spent decades covering up for your country's past while spending no time addressing it it becomes part of the country's present they say time kills all wounds but when you don't properly address one hit confessor today we see these wounds manifested in the conflicts between white people and people of color the increased attacks on asian americans as well as to rejuvenate interest in white supremacy groups such as the proud boys and although our former president played a large role in examining these issues they've always been there the survey conducted by the pw research center in june 2020 explains that 78 of asian americans as well as african-americans as well as 58 of hispanics reported they experienced racial discrimination with asians being the most likely to be subjected to racial slurs and with the history we've made with tamala harris as the first elected female and black vice president you must not forget that there is much work to be done you must avoid moving on from issues once we perceive that progress has been made replied with the black lives matter protests in the summer of 2020 when many people simply post the black score on instagram hashtagging black out tuesday and calling enough activism for the day because only when we've stopped to acknowledge the festering wounds the systemic racism will we be able to start taking actions to treat it in the second grade i moved from a really small town in kansas to a really recent part of oklahoma called oklahoma growing up in oklahoma high experiencing a lot of racial discrimination and when i tried to tell the adults around me about this issue as experiencing it often downplayed saying that racial was prevalent everywhere and that i just needed to grow their skin same issue occurred when i tried to tell my asian peers about this problem they tell me that they experienced the same risk as well but they ignored and told me that i should too as a community asian americans have learned to keep their head down and move on when fixing discrimination according to nbc news while a quarter of asian americans reported that they've experienced racial discrimination plain quarter responded that they'd be comfortable reporting to law enforcement and that needs to change not only has conforming to the stereotype that we are not confrontational resulting as being more easily targeted places are most vulnerable that have targets on their backs nbc news reports that of the 2600 hate crimes reported from february 2020 to march 2021 68 have been women many being elders as a communi asian amer we must start speaking up when our friends try to pass off a racist comment as a joke we need to start speaking up when the boy scene next to us pulls the corners of his eyes back and we need to start speaking up when our friends and family are being beat on the streets because while unlimited silence i've been taught has been an uphill battle the small difference i made when i decided to stop ignoring the racism around me was worth it what i learned from that was that my journey towards progress will never be over and that is okay as a society let's rewrite our relationship with progress first when it comes to issues such as racism progress will not be linear sometimes we will get stuck and fall back our journey towards progress is a room full of twists and turns ups and downs and that is okay as long as we continue to move forward what is important is that we acknowledge these issues don't deny them instead of work the problem because denying the problem exists only makes it easier for people to get hurt by them second we must realize that doing one good thing and no we need somewhere out of the woods but not out of the woods because of the history we made with kamala harris obama's presidency we're even posting black score on instagram single moment of success does not mean that the problem is over and that we can simply move on with their lives because the truth is issues as in greatest reason will never completely disappear since time we accept that now realizing accepting that our fight against systemic wisdom might never be over does not mean that things when things will never get better but that we must stay visually even when things start to look up we must ignore we must stop ignoring our problems instead they still head on like then we truly be able to have progress thank you [Applause]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 1,258

Keywords: English, News, Progress, Protests, Racism, Social Science, TEDxTalks

Id: wI5wg0h9esI

Length: 10min 6sec (606 seconds)

Published: Fri May 28 2021