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This was also a year that racism was at the forefront of my life. Personal & Professional. I could no longer stay silent, despite all the internalized racism that has told me for decades that I was expected to be the "dutiful, hardworking, non-ruffling feathers Asian female". /1 https://twitter.com/AmyTanMD/status/1353748301422583810
1) Got emails 1 yr+2 days ago-to those celebrating the Lunar New Yr (Jan 25/20) to ensure that none of us came to work sick after gathering for the safety of colleagues.
An email to Asians in CANADA (not China where the virus was at the time).
East Asian=virus at that time. /2
An email to Asians in CANADA (not China where the virus was at the time).
East Asian=virus at that time. /2
2) Flew on my last flight to date end of Jan 2020. A white man row ahead coughed the whole time.
I choked on some water & coughed. A lady across aisle moved away from me, covered her face w her sweater, glared at me. I had to tell her I had not been to China before she relaxed/3
I choked on some water & coughed. A lady across aisle moved away from me, covered her face w her sweater, glared at me. I had to tell her I had not been to China before she relaxed/3
3) In March, I heard angry pts & colleagues re lockdowns. While not directed *at* me, saying to me, "if only the Chinese didn't have weird animal markets, didn't eat gross crap, kept things clean, we wouldn't be in lockdown" still affected me, a Chinese person among mostly whites
4) Worsening violence against East Asians in Canada Spring 2020. My parents who immigrated to Canada 50 + yrs ago shared they were more scared for their safety now than when they first came. They were still "othered" in Canada despite being Canadian x almost 50 yrs. /5
I posted this back in the Spring to channel my despair re my parents and their generation of East Asian immigrants who were now being verbally or worse physically assaulted simply for being Asian & wearing a mask. /6 https://twitter.com/AmyTanMD/status/1265449906577129477?s=19
5) I had pts in my family practice who were essential workers working throughout lockdown. They were scared, not feeling protected by their employers. Most racialized, many were new immigrants & refugees. None felt like they could speak up. I wrote letters/calls for their safety.
6) Tragedy at Cargill meatpacking plant in Calgary. Again, issue of Canadian corps mistreating migrant workers, temporary foreign workers with no immigration security, let alone job security, no paid sick time, incentivized to work in dangerous conditions blamed for the outbreak
7) Linked in many ways to the #LTC crisis that did not pay personal support workers (many racialized ppl) a living age, benefits or paid sick leave. Many have been killed, gotten sick, pts also sick because we have let this happen with how corps treat those with less power
8) May 25, 2020: The utter tragic, malicious, reprehensible killing of George Floyd for allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill brought out decades of grief & anger regarding anti-Black racism in America.
This racial reckoning started much needed conversations here in 
: how All Lives Matter in reply to #BlackLivesMatter 
is racist & harmful, how silence is complicit, the need to be ANTI-racist. Facing lack of progress on Truth & Reconcilation re our awful harm to Indigenous Ppl.
: how All Lives Matter in reply to #BlackLivesMatter is racist & harmful, how silence is complicit, the need to be ANTI-racist. Facing lack of progress on Truth & Reconcilation re our awful harm to Indigenous Ppl.
9) Doing my own work. Delving deep in how my own internalized racism- keeping my head down-was complicit & racist, how buying into the "model minority" myth caused harm. How my family & fellow Asians have caused harm in not calling out anti-Indigenous & Anti-black racism. No more
I have been complicit in the past by playing the role I learned gained me good graces-hard-working, conscientious, responsible. Whenever I spoke out even as recently as 6-8 yrs ago, I was punished professionally. It kept me "in line" in the white power structure. No more /13
I channeled my shame/despair in knowing there've been times in my past where I was silent re anti-Indigenous & anti-Black racism esp in Asian communities, my own lessons in anti-racism & my own visceral feelings of racist harm felt into some action to be anti-racist accomplices14
I will use my unearned privilege that I have to speak up so that equity can be achieved for EVERYONE in ALL spaces. Anti-racism is not a siloed group or committee, it is part of EVERY space, discussion, group. Because safety, inclusion & belonging is a basic human right. /15
