♰ George Floyd death (May 25, 2020) together with the widespread of social media bought about the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter that spread across platforms. It also brought people out on the street despite the event of COVID-19.
I believe that no-one deserve to have been through what George Floyd had gone through before his passing from this world regardless of their skin colours. The act itself is cruel especially when it has not been proved that he has been a threat to the immediate surroundings. Even if he is not a black, I would have felt the same. It is not the racism but it was the violence that should be condemn. This violence has been worsen because the "black" and the "police" is prejudiced with certain behaviour mindset or stereotype. This results in people pouring out to the street to call for justice amidst the spread of COVID-19. I agree with how they want to righten things but not necessarily agree with the mean of doing it particularly when this caused more trouble to innocent people (whom may have well agreed with the protestor). To me, the whole things are about "Violence" but the racism has aggravated the situation. 💔
🌐 I know that I won't have a solution to change the world but I hope that my small contribution to the solution would make the world a little better everyday. 🌐
👦👧👨👩👰👮👱👲👳👴👵👶👷👹👺👻👼👽👾👿💀💂
Here is some of my own reflections on discrimination of minority.
Why do I choose to share the statement from MSU School of Packaging Director?
No, it is not because he is the director of the school I love but MSU School of Packaging is the place where I build mindset of inclusivity. I firmly believed that "people are not created equally". That is why we look differently, act differently, think differently, speak differently and many other differences. Instead of looking at it as "US" and "THEM", I prefer to look at it as "TEAM with great DIVERSITY". MSU School of Packaging is the place where I have this first hand experience. We are a truly multicultural community with people coming from all over the world and with different academic background.
My experience as a minority
When we talk about minority, the first thing we think of is the race but it is fact comes in various shapes or forms. I personally define it as someone who is different from the majority in any aspects. Of course race is one of them. I am an American born so in the US, I am automatically labeled as "minority" because my parents are not Americans. When I am in Thailand, although I am not labeled that way there is still an indication of that on my ID number.
Not only my race, there are also other things that made me feel like minority according to my definition. Some examples are: "Size" is one thing and I have lived for the longest time being commented on how thin I am and many other consequences that they have come up for me. "Being a single child" is another thing (This may become majority in today world but not back then). "Ability to do many things (especially sports)" is one more thing I that I think I am always on the short end. "Gender" also puts me on the minority (which is odd because now there are more women than man in the world but of course woman in certain field/high ranking office is still lower).
Yes, I do suffer from being minority in many aspects but I do get benefit from being minority as well. However, I believe that the benefit outweighs the suffering. I believe that I have the opportunity to be who I am today partly because of being minority. It gets me into being TA, which brought me into the career I love today. Once I decided to take an academic path, it is being minority that gets me the scholarship (Minority Competitive Doctoral Fellowship) to financially support me throughout my Ph.D. program.
The view of minority in US & Thailand
In the US, I can see the effort of its government to provide support to include minority into the mainstream. They have a law to include certain percentage of minority into the mainstream workforce. Sometime we often hear that joke of "reverse discrimination". In Thailand, I do not see much of these efforts. Looking in the perspective of an academic unit as small as the department, sometime we prefer the homogeneous pool of faculty members particularly by recruiting our own students (AKA in-breeding). There is an effort to hire "Farang" in certain cases such as to satisfy internationalisation KPI or to have someone to help with English.
In term of social life, people from each ethnicity are more distinct in both how they look and how they live their life. Sometime they would label people with certain stereotype. In Thailand people does not look very different (except certain ethnicity) and our way of living are not so much different. So, if a person have the same degree of racism, it would be easier to be racism in the US. This maybe one reason that we see more racism act
In term of non-ethnic issue, I think the US is much more careful than in Thailand. People in the US will not say someone is white, black, fat, skinny. They also do not ask certain question in an interview because the interviewee maybe offended. Examples of these questions are: how old are you, what is your religion, How tall are you, what is your weight, are you gay, etc. These questions and issues can be brought up in Thailand in any situation. Sometime we use these "ปมด้อย" to joke around (and sometime in public) and done by people with higher authority such as teacher.
Many influential figures in big or small organisations regardless have issued statements related to standing in solidarity against racism. I re-posted the picture of the message from the director of MSU School of Packaging, my alma mater, on my Facebook and stated that
I stand firm with MSU School of Packaging on being a part of the solution as an alumni and a minority myself. Although people are not born the same, all deserve the equal respect and equal right to live.In part of this, I vow not to use violence on anyone and it is and will be at the core of what I teach my twins. I will not be biased against anyone because they are different. I will embrace diversity and promote the inclusivity rather than dividing "US" and "THEM". I will promote diversity and inclusivity concept to my twins and my students so they can appreciate everyone.
🌐 I know that I won't have a solution to change the world but I hope that my small contribution to the solution would make the world a little better everyday. 🌐
👦👧👨👩👰👮👱👲👳👴👵👶👷👹👺👻👼👽👾👿💀💂
Here is some of my own reflections on discrimination of minority.
Why do I choose to share the statement from MSU School of Packaging Director?
No, it is not because he is the director of the school I love but MSU School of Packaging is the place where I build mindset of inclusivity. I firmly believed that "people are not created equally". That is why we look differently, act differently, think differently, speak differently and many other differences. Instead of looking at it as "US" and "THEM", I prefer to look at it as "TEAM with great DIVERSITY". MSU School of Packaging is the place where I have this first hand experience. We are a truly multicultural community with people coming from all over the world and with different academic background.
My experience as a minority
When we talk about minority, the first thing we think of is the race but it is fact comes in various shapes or forms. I personally define it as someone who is different from the majority in any aspects. Of course race is one of them. I am an American born so in the US, I am automatically labeled as "minority" because my parents are not Americans. When I am in Thailand, although I am not labeled that way there is still an indication of that on my ID number.
Not only my race, there are also other things that made me feel like minority according to my definition. Some examples are: "Size" is one thing and I have lived for the longest time being commented on how thin I am and many other consequences that they have come up for me. "Being a single child" is another thing (This may become majority in today world but not back then). "Ability to do many things (especially sports)" is one more thing I that I think I am always on the short end. "Gender" also puts me on the minority (which is odd because now there are more women than man in the world but of course woman in certain field/high ranking office is still lower).
Yes, I do suffer from being minority in many aspects but I do get benefit from being minority as well. However, I believe that the benefit outweighs the suffering. I believe that I have the opportunity to be who I am today partly because of being minority. It gets me into being TA, which brought me into the career I love today. Once I decided to take an academic path, it is being minority that gets me the scholarship (Minority Competitive Doctoral Fellowship) to financially support me throughout my Ph.D. program.
The view of minority in US & Thailand
In the US, I can see the effort of its government to provide support to include minority into the mainstream. They have a law to include certain percentage of minority into the mainstream workforce. Sometime we often hear that joke of "reverse discrimination". In Thailand, I do not see much of these efforts. Looking in the perspective of an academic unit as small as the department, sometime we prefer the homogeneous pool of faculty members particularly by recruiting our own students (AKA in-breeding). There is an effort to hire "Farang" in certain cases such as to satisfy internationalisation KPI or to have someone to help with English.
In term of social life, people from each ethnicity are more distinct in both how they look and how they live their life. Sometime they would label people with certain stereotype. In Thailand people does not look very different (except certain ethnicity) and our way of living are not so much different. So, if a person have the same degree of racism, it would be easier to be racism in the US. This maybe one reason that we see more racism act
In term of non-ethnic issue, I think the US is much more careful than in Thailand. People in the US will not say someone is white, black, fat, skinny. They also do not ask certain question in an interview because the interviewee maybe offended. Examples of these questions are: how old are you, what is your religion, How tall are you, what is your weight, are you gay, etc. These questions and issues can be brought up in Thailand in any situation. Sometime we use these "ปมด้อย" to joke around (and sometime in public) and done by people with higher authority such as teacher.
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