I'm serious.

 I'm serious.

Okay, so it may not be a cough or a fever — but unconscious bias is a symptom that we're already seeing everywhere.

 But before I get into this: Hi Shelly

First off: thank you for being here. Whether we've met online or IRL, worked together or simply had heart to hearts — thank you for choosing to spend a few minutes of your day reading, learning, and growing with me — especially at a time where everything in the world feels uncertain. 

Welcome officially to our first ever T-Thursday, a weekly newsletter of love, allyship, advocacy and so much more. T, of course, because while most Thursdays will be Thoughtful, some might just be Truths, Tea —that needs spilling— or simply Thankful.

So let's get to it, and start with the elephant in the room shall we? 

#COVID-19. 

And not Covid-19 the way we’ve been seeing in the news about reports, or number of cases, or things being shut down.  

I want us for a minute, to clear the images we have right now of everything that’s going on. 

     And now, I want you to imagine you’re opening your eyes to the day the quarantines are         over. The schools are starting again. Businesses are starting to open. The curve has been        flattened. And everything is going to be okay. 

Seems kind of comforting and safe, right? 

If you’re not East Asian, it probably does. But for a second — if you’re not — I want you to take that image, and I want you to see that world from the eyes of an East-Asian’s perspective. 

The world is still uncertain, and probably scarier too. 

The world shifted in a similar way, almost two decades ago. It was September 11, 2001. The news, for days, shared images of Muslim names that made worse what was already xenophobia bubbling under the surface. 

As the media slowed down the sharing of the tragedy and events in the months after 9/11, that’s when the hate continued to grow. In America, hate crimes to Islamic groups jumped from 28 to 481 in 2001, post 9-11.  

Here’s the thing though: at some point, it didn’t matter if the people conducting hate crimes knew if they were actually targeting the Islamic community. Anyone who looked South Asian and/or wore any form of Religious Headwear was targeted out of ignorance of the cultural differences. 

Hate didn’t care.  

I say this all to say that we already know this is going to be the same for the East-Asian community. It won’t matter to racists and bigots alike if someone is Taiwanese or Japanese or Chinese-American 3 generations strong and has no connection to Mainland China. 

Ignorance will continue to stay ignorant. 

In fact: it’s already started. This CNN report — already outdated from February 21, 2020 — goes over some of the early hate crimes towards the East-Asian community. In Canada itself, earlier this month two buddhist temples, a cultural centre, and Chinatown in Montreal were vandalized with religious monuments and statues broken or destroyed. 

So yeah: the hate crimes are already going up, and innocent folks (who have nothing to do with the virus) are already being targeted.  

So what’s next? What do we do now? How do we make this better? 

These are the questions I’ve been asking myself all week. 

In times like these, we must first start with ourselves and our own internal biases and judgements. I learned a long time ago that it’s not the first thought we have, but the second, that shows us that we are in the process of unlearning and doing better. 

As we navigate the next few days, weeks, and months, especially if you are not of East-Asian Descent, I invite you to think about a few things: 

• Check your unconscious bias. When interacting with someone of East-Asian Descent, are you smiling? Are you kind? Solidarity smiles are a real thing — and being a little extra kind in your looks and your energy can be strongly felt, especially when folks may be consistently feeling a lot of the opposite. 
• Invest into East-Asian businesses. This could be a store in your local Chinatown, your favourite bubble tea place, or even an Asian-owned small business. While small businesses are losing money everywhere, visibly asian-owned businesses will be taking some of the hardest hits — both financially and emotionally. 
• Remember that wearing masks in the East Asian Community has been a practice long before COVID-19. Before you judge the East-Asian community (or berate them) for wearing a face mask amidst a shortage for healthcare professionals, I invite you to read this op-ed and understand the trauma of SARS that pushed face-masks as a part of everyday routine and resilience for a whole community. 

And once this is all over? The East-Asian community will need more than just solidarity smiles and kindness. They will (and currently do) need the allyship that comes with speaking up, with showing up, and with action. 

We’re all going to have to do better, collectively, to defy the statistics I don’t want to have to see or share. At different times in our history, xenophobia — fear of the foreign — has killed hundreds of thousands. And while the Black, Indigenous, Jewish, Muslim, and Queer communities (and so many more) have been strongly persecuted, now is the time we stand by and with our East Asian community. 

Have any additional thoughts? Things I should add to this list? Businesses in the East-Asian community that you know are struggling that needs a little extra help? Hit reply and let me know — and let’s do this together. 

Love & Warmth Always, 

Jenny Jay