Here is another update, everyone! I did say I am going to try harder to keep up with the blog activity.
First, I added a new story called A “Tribal” Look: What Does That Really Mean? It is not a unique critique or discussion, really, but it feels like it has not been had enough. In an ideal world, I would not want it to happen. Yet, some of the same stereotypes in pop-culture, media, and video gaming seem still perpetuated. I promise anything negative said in here is said with love and a place of hoping to increase understanding on a topic!
Another bit of news, it seems that the move my mother and stepfather are going through is stressful. Without going into too much detail, I can see the effects of the pandemic still playing out from last year going into this year. My grandfather died last year, and we are still dealing with his estate almost a year later. There are also other sources of discontent regarding my mother and stepfather, and I am only wishing, praying, and hoping they will both find happiness soon and live long, prosperous lives. I worry about the impact everything has had on my mother especially.
We are still uncertain of whether we will have “round two” of the pandemic. Even then, even while the nation increases vaccination rates over time for US citizens, there is still an exponential increase of hate crimes against Asian American people. This further reinforces the belief that the xenophobia, hatred, and perceptions (conscious or unconscious) of AAPI peoples being subhuman is nothing new and folks have only become emboldened in recent years to act more openly on it. Even more, this, as Dr. Viet Tanh Nguyễn has pointed out, something that betrays how harmful the model minority stereotype really is when used against members of the community. The deaths by COVID-19 have increased by 30% for Asian American people while still remaining significantly high for Black, Hispanic, and Native and Pacific Islander Communities. The 30% data comes from a webinar I watched that featured several people, including Representative Judy Chu. Everything else can be found on the CDC website, for anyone with a doubt about the impact of the pandemic on minoritized communities.
Good news is I am going to ALA Virtual 2021, and I had participated in the first ceremony for a literary award where I am on a committee deciding on the award. The latter had stressful moment when we had a troll come into the virtual chat and espouse sexist and racist epithets, but I and others reported the situation and it was resolved within minutes. I am saddened that these occurrences of racist trolls bombing virtual meetings are more common place than they should be. Either way, I am hoping for the best for our winners, and look forward to learning more from ALA Virtual. We have a number of famous authors and world-shakers presenting this year, and they did their due diligence to make sure to provide more space for LGBTQIA+, differently able-bodied, and black, indigenous, and people of color folks in the talks. I am excited and look forward to the organization keeping up the good work in fighting white supremacy in library spaces!
That is it for now. I am hoping everything negative I have posted has a positive conclusion sooner than later. I am looking forward to reading all these books for the next bit of committee work I am doing.
– Arya
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