[51%]
ARTIST'S STATEMENT__the 49%
To put it bluntly, I wanted to compile my personal thoughts on some social justice issues that I am passionate about in a way that is organized, controlled, and scathing.
There are many underlying themes in [51%], including religious exclusion, invisibility in the medical setting, and harassment in academic institutions. The biggest, overarching theme that [51%] is fueled by is racism.
I was able to combine some of my personal experiences with the research I've done in each different setting to sort of try and insert the reader in those spaces. These things might seem unrealistic and something that wouldn't ever happen to some, but it does–these kinds of experiences are unfortunately common, especially towards Asian minorities in the wake of COVID-19. I've even had men tell me to be their comfort woman. On multiple occasions. These experiences are very real. By putting readers in this spot, my goal was to help minorities like they are not alone, and for non-minorities to be as uncomfortable as possible. It is the reason why I chose a poem format and the reason why I decided to make [51%] in first-person. All-in-all, I give credit to Claudia Rankine's Citizen for inspiring my style and mixed form of prose and poem.
-> PREFACE
Preface was to start out in a way so that readers could understand the severity of the situation, as well as introduce the religious theme. It's a personal one–and although the experience was in middle school, it's something that I'll never forget. It was a jarring realization that even spaces that are supposed to be safe–like religious ones or academic ones–can never be safe for people who look like me. Slurs that Asian minorities are often derogatorily addressed as are part of the poem, and I wanted to make the 'white savior' complex a painful point of realization for readers.
-> THE START
While doing research, I came across a study of foreign exchange students who were in American universities during COVID-19. Some first-hand experiences from some of the students included other peers throwing rocks (even breaking this particular student's phone), throwing garbage, or verbal abuse in buses. It's during these times when I believe minorities sometimes want to 'give up' and denounce our ethnicities and cultures. I know I have.
-> THE DENIAL
Another work I came across was about the 'invisibility' of Asians in the healthcare field, especially post-COVID. It's something that I believe goes hand-in-hand with the minority myth.
In most medical settings, words are said concisely and professionally, although more often than not it is not at all the intention nor thought behind them. I wanted there to be a parallel of what it feels like to be a patient, as well as someone who would play the role of a caretaker with an Asian identity of being invisible.
-> TEST
0. To be honest,
you my our lives
have no meaning. Even if we are
individuals, we are an unseen
___________.
human (49%)
object
garbage
nothing (51%)
-> AFTERWORD
"The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin is a short story part of a collection called The Wind's Twelve Quarters. Although I will refrain from putting a conclusive synopsis here, I highly recommend this book, if even just this one short story. Both vague and descriptive on purpose, UKL describes a utopian city Omelas, whose happiness and prosperity depend solely on the continual suffering of one child.
Omelas already exists–there is no need to look for it. It exists all around us, through every disparity and misery we see daily. It exists between every 'us' and 'them'. As an afterword, I wanted this point to really drive an unsettling feeling. Complacency cannot exist if social issues like racism (in this case, applied towards Asian minorities as one of the consequences of COVID-19) are to be dealt with. Uneasiness can drive change.