Voices of 2020 Minorities
- We Unite
- Jul 25, 2020
- 5 min read
Updated: Oct 1, 2020
Disclaimer: This is a sided blog and I hope that you can be open-minded into seeing the other side if you do disagree.
"Your opinions can change. As you gain more information, you become more knowledgeable and mentally able to form a solid opinion. Yet as you do learn, your views may change and it is only best to acknowledge the growth you have achieved." - Nazreen Ali
Nothing was scarier than hearing that a protest had started in a city just an hour away from where I, my family and friends live. All my life, I’ve only heard the negative stigmas and what biased media told me about protesters: people going against the correct way of living. Since quarantine had just started, I was only really surrounded by my republican neighborhood who would follow their beliefs of their president and only tell me the terrible things these protests are doing. I began to develop what I know now as a terrible and biased view of these Black Lives Matter protests. All my life I was terrified of minority groups in the media. Being a Muslim, any sort of media representation on mainstream news sources always meant we’d experience backlash. After the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and others from men in the middle east, my community was scared to even step outside. So seeing these people blasting these men and women that have been innocently killed was honestly very scary for me. I didn’t want them to deal with more racist and narrow-minded remarks from uneducated people.
I remember opening Instagram to everyone’s posts about a man named George Floyd. I was so uneducated at this point, yet I began to read these posts and read every caption. I don’t think I’ve cried so hard over Instagram posts. I could not believe what had gotten to my head. As I did more and more research I am so ashamed of my previous opinions. Your opinions can change. Let me say that again. Your opinions on topics can change. As you gain more information, you become more knowledgeable and mentally able to form a solid opinion. Yet as you do learn, your views may change and it is only best to acknowledge the growth you have achieved. I ask that you read and research more topics as the minority topics I will speak on are only a few and there are many other incidents occurring now in the U.S.A.
Race Minority Groups
Asians are currently experiencing one of the worst stereotypes coming from all around the world. People of Asian descent have been yelled at, attacked, spit on, threatened, and more all because of the Corona Virus originating from an Asian country, China. On May 8, 2020, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that “the pandemic continues to unleash a tsunami of hate and xenophobia, scapegoating and scaremongering” and urged governments to “act now to strengthen the immunity of our societies against the virus of hate.” (Human Rights Watch). Xenophobia is at its highest by the majority population in America, and it is mostly fueled by politicians. With President Trump using slurs and referring to this deadly virus as a “Chinese virus”, many republican sided politicians saw this as a norm and it became a daily phrase of many republicans. Some people in America are and have been using the Corona Virus to argue that the U.S. should begin shutting down its borders and instituting a travel ban from foreign countries in order to shorten and restrict immigration. While some cite actual public health figures, others lean on bigoted and xenophobic arguments for these policies (ADL).
Washington Post
LGBTQ+
Not only has race minority groups been affected lately, but the LGBTQ+ community also has its share. On June 15th, 2020, LGBTQ+ rights advocates triumphed at the Supreme Court Monday, winning a sweeping decision from the justices that protects gay, lesbian and transgender employees from being disciplined, fired or turned down for a job based on their sexual orientation or gender history. (Politico). "An employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of different sex. Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the decision, exactly what Title VII forbids," wrote Justice Neil Gorsuch, a conservative appointed by President Donald Trump, in the majority opinion. The decision was the triumph for social conservatives and their protesters and a defeat for President Trump's administration, which had urged the justices to take a narrow view of the half-century-old law. (Politico). "I've read the decision," the president said of the various opinions, which ran to 119 pages in all. "Some people were surprised, but they've ruled and we live with their decision. That's what it's all about. We live with the decision of the Supreme Court-where very powerful decisons are made , very powerful decision, actually." LGBTQ+ activists were thought to face an uphill battle at the high court because Congress has spent more than four decades considering, but failing to pass, measures intended to expand the coverage of the 1964 law by explicitly adding sexual orientation to the list of protected traits. Please visit the data on the Legislation Affecting LGBTQ+ Rights Across the Country for the numbers and status of each state's position. The rumor and attempt to ban the LGBTQ+ community from workforces, the military, and more rights have always been in societies’ minds. It is our job as the generation to terminate these ideas on minorities such as those with different attractions or gender transformations..
Retrieved from: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/03/02/804873211/whiplash-of-lgbtq-protections-and-rights-from-obama-to-trump
Our Voices Must be Heard
Minorities across the country all have different stories. We all have been through difficult times, but some are different than others. Whether you are a woman, part of the LGBTQ+ community, Black, Middle Eastern, Asian, Latino, Muslim, Jewish, Native American, or part of any other minority group, you are recognized. During times like this, we are all finally starting to have our voices heard, so speak up! Your input is really needed. I’ve honestly never been more proud of our generation than now. We care about the change that this country needs. One of the biggest changes we need is the acceptance of minority groups. We say their names, we abolish xenophobia, we stand for those being refused into the military because of their gender history, we help those without homes or families, we change the beauty standard, we destroy rape stigmas, we end the need for toxic masculinity, WE LET PEOPLE BE PEOPLE. We as a generation need to come together and yell for our people. We all deserve equal rights. Yes all lives matter, so let’s make it that way. Let’s stand for those who currently aren’t mattering to the government and the country as a whole. We need to stand together, so please with your help: share that post, call out your friend who just said a slur, go to that protest, sign that petition. Even the littlest action makes a big impact.
Written by Nazreen Ali from Temecula, California
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