Daniel Otero

3531189352@qq.com

WITH the recent changes in the U.S. presidency, people are hopeful that things will get better. However, the escalation in attacks on Asian-Americans has been appalling. Right now in the U.S. there have been more than 3,000 documented attacks on people who are Asian or have an Asian appearance.

Racism has always been a constant in every society around the world. The problem is that racism is taught, and as a parent teaching his kid, the child will obviously and rapidly imitate. This is the case and point with Donald Trump. When he started using the racist term, “Chinese virus,” he gave an “excuse” and basically entitled ignorant, bigoted people to go out and hurt or even kill others.

I know how deeply racism can leave emotional scars. As a Jewish street kid, I recall the gangs chasing me back in Brooklyn, New York and calling me a “Christ killer.” In my defense, I never did kill Christ or my ancestry, but these ignorant, silly people gave themselves an excuse to verbally and physically assault me on behalf of their religion. This trauma never goes away. To me this happened 41 years ago and it is still fresh on my mind and brings tears to my eyes.

The question is, when will these racist attacks stop? When we confront the problem and better educate a society. This will be based on stopping generalizations and learning how to treat all equally. Not caring for skin appearances, but for their proper behavior. World leaders are also responsible for this; they have to teach their people not to generalize, but treat all fairly and objectively.

I’m American; but my wife and daughter are Chinese-born. I just hope my daughter, who looks like me, never has to hear in China, “Go back to your country!” She was born here!

America is a great country; however, one thing that has always hurt the country is its past and present racist problems. Every time a new group of people come into the country or an international tragedy of great proportions happens, such as the Sept. 11 attacks, suddenly the focus of abuse turns to a particular group, through no fault of their own.

Let’s hope that educational institutions globally can do better in educating their people. And as for the bigots, when they have something closed-minded to say, I can only answer with the words of Mark Twain, “Why don’t you travel more, open your mind and read a book before you speak?”

(The author is originally from New York City working as a teacher at the Shenzhen Guangming Foreign Languages School.)