March 20, 2020 - Straight White American Jesus
06:05
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| AXIS MUNDY AXIS MUNDY Hello, everyone. | |
| Thanks for joining me today. | |
| Here's what I want to say at the jump. | |
| We are all really anxious. | |
| We're all really scared. | |
| For those of us who are alive today, this is an unprecedented situation. | |
| I don't think anyone living has been through something like this. | |
| This is touching all aspects of life. | |
| This is, of course, bringing on huge concern about physical health for us and for all of our loved ones and anyone in the world. | |
| We're worried about the future. | |
| I know many of you are worried about finances and jobs as things continue to sort of expand and as we get ready for a kind of longer and longer pandemic. | |
| All of us are dealing with social isolation, and there's the cancellation of really important events, graduations, weddings. | |
| It's just a gut punch, right? | |
| To work so hard to graduate college or to plan your wedding, and then all of a sudden to have to think about it not happening. | |
| These are really, really hard times. | |
| It's completely and absolutely irrational to be worried. | |
| Now, during these times, it often makes us feel better To have someone to blame for why we're feeling bad. | |
| I mean, when you are feeling bad, when you are hurt, | |
| You want to know who is the source of that hurt and that suffering that that also makes a lot of sense That's also very rational Justice is cathartic It doesn't make the pain go away, but it often soothes it and there is something about seeing somebody who is responsible for hurting you Being held accountable that in some way helps you to accept it to move forward and just to kind of cope and | |
| The problem here, as we sort of all live under the coronavirus condition, pandemic, et cetera, is that there's no readily available one person or entity to blame for this. | |
| That's just not how viruses work, that these things happen in ways that cannot be pinpointed to one person who wanted to inflict harm or wage biological war on others. | |
| Every report from the middle community has said this is a naturally occurring virus. | |
| It is not a matter of biological warfare. | |
| It is not a matter of something that was built in a lab to hurt other people. | |
| OK, so we cannot pin this on one person or one group. | |
| I bring this up because, as you all know, I talked about this yesterday, that President Trump is saying that it's the China virus and Senator Cornyn from Texas is saying China is to blame. | |
| The idea that we should blame a whole country or a whole group of people for what's happening is not accurate and it's not responsible. | |
| And what we are learning and what we're seeing is that it's leading to widespread harassment and abuse of Asian people of all descent. | |
| And so we're seeing that the desire to blame someone for this is leading to actual hurt and pain for others. | |
| What I want to encourage you today, if you take nothing else from this video, is hopefully we can find ways to not let the suffering and pain that we are all going through as a result of the coronavirus translate into increasing suffering and hurt and abuse on people who have nothing to do with creating that situation. | |
| I think one of the worst things we can do when we're suffering is lash out in a way that creates suffering for others that is not due, is not right, and is not appropriate. | |
| So I think my hope is we can do that, okay? | |
| Now, I think what we can do is hold our leaders to account and do our best to help each other, right? | |
| I think number one, we can all find ways to help each other through this pandemic. | |
| And there's so many different ways that we can be neighbors and family members that we can reach out, that we can try to support financially or through time or just through offering to help those in need, okay? | |
| What I want to talk about today is how we can also make sure that our leaders are accountable, that we can make sure that our leaders are honest and open about what's happening with this situation. | |
| Well, let me give you an example from today that is egregious. | |
| I mean, honestly, I was so angry yesterday. | |
| If you go back and watch the live stream, I was just furious about what John Cornyn said about blaming China. | |
| And I'm going to talk about that today. | |
| And I'm going to give you a sort of handy explainer to anyone who parrots what he said about blaming China and harassing people of Asian descent. | |
| I'm going to give you a handmade response to anyone who parrots that idea. | |
| But what we have today is something that is just as egregious or more. | |
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