{"id":6668,"date":"2021-03-20T06:32:33","date_gmt":"2021-03-20T16:32:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/?p=6668"},"modified":"2021-03-20T06:32:36","modified_gmt":"2021-03-20T16:32:36","slug":"in-2020-its-vax-americana-but-will-we-all-be-together-by-july-4th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/2021\/03\/20\/in-2020-its-vax-americana-but-will-we-all-be-together-by-july-4th\/","title":{"rendered":"In 2020, It\u2019s VAX AMERICANA. But Will We All Be Together by July 4th?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Columnist Emil Guillermo getting his COVID-19 vaccine shot.<\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

by Emil Guillermo

<\/em>OK, patriots, are you committed to masking up?

Because according to President Joe Biden, it\u2019s going to take more masking and physical distancing to beat this pandemic. Especially, if we want to celebrate Fourth of July with a bang.And don\u2019t forget your shot.Not to brag, but I got the vaccine.

I\u2019m not a food worker, an educator (not presently), or a health care worker. Just an unboomed Boomer waiting for my needle. And I finally got it, the Moderna, the one that sounds like it belongs on the shelf next to Gucci and Dolce Gabbana. Pfizer? They didn\u2019t offer it and I\u2019m Pfilipino<\/em>. Johnson & Johnson? It\u2019s more than a Band-Aid or a one-hit wonder. If you are offered any of the three, take it.

The best one is the one you can get. Any vaccine at this point will help you and everyone else. I wore two masks and blue light-blocking glasses. Am I overly cautious?

Just note, fearing the vaccine doesn\u2019t make sense. Of course, I wouldn\u2019t trust Trump, the anti-masker who secretly got vaccinated. But after his administration gave the virus a year\u2019s head start, and more than 525,000 deaths, this new administration is trying to get it right. From the $1.9 trillion stimulus package to the vaccine.

And if you\u2019re a Republican, what\u2019s going on? Not one Republican crossed over to join the Democrats to pass the stimulus. What? Didn\u2019t have any military spending? Or maybe the GOP has a death wish. Just remember this come election time: the Democrats came up with a plan to bail out and unify the country, and the most Trumpy Republicans like Rep. Matt Gaetz and Rep. Jim Jordan declined to join in. Instead, they were advocating to end Britney Spears conservatorship. (A worthy cause, maybe, just not compared to helping the country recover from the pandemic.)

Why expect anything different? Trump Republicans have been blocking and exacerbating Covid efforts since February 2020. It\u2019s made getting vaccines post-Trump more difficult than it has to be.

In California, so many doses were sitting on the shelf going bad as a mere fraction of eligible folks got vaccinated. I lucked out when a friend sent me to a website that signed me up in January. The state hadn\u2019t developed a plan yet. When the state realized last week that certain zip codes were inequitably treated in the distribution (places like the Central Valley and parts of Los Angeles), the state finally contacted me for a first shot this week\u2013after I had finished both doses. Waiting for the government would have delayed being fully vaccinated by at least a month.

The bureaucracy is worse than the treatment. Just don\u2019t worry about the vaccine. It isn\u2019t made up of the active virus. Plus, it\u2019s based on a delivery system that addresses your RNA, not DNA. Genetically, you don\u2019t have to worry. (Doctors out there know I have horribly simplified this, but that\u2019s what you need to know.)

But here\u2019s a warning from my experience. The second shot was different. I felt the needle. And within six hours, I had a fever of 101. Maybe I was sickened by the combination of late-night writing and binge-watching the sordid \u201cAllen v. Farrow\u201d on HBO. But by the morning, I was fine. My arm was sore. And my antibodies had gotten a gym workout. In two weeks, the buildup should result in my being fully vaccinated \u2013 a soon to be card-carrying member of Vax Americana.

Mind you, I don\u2019t feel like Superman yet. And I\u2019m still masking and distancing. But I feel confident dealing with COVID.

It\u2019s the anti-Asian American racists I\u2019m not sure about.

Asian Americans Are Hot!<\/strong>
People are noticing us, finally. For once, all my white friends are legitimately worried about my well-being. One in New York asked about me on a Zoom call, \u201cAre you ok?\u201d Another in Boston said he noticed how we\u2019re always in the news. \u201cYou guys are hot!\u201d he said.

But when I ask my friends who are Asian American history profs, they all say the same thing, essentially that we\u2019ve been victimized by racist xenophobia for decades.

It\u2019s just that recent incidents, on top of the thousands of self-reported cases to the Stop AAPI Hate website, were so sensational\u2013the death of a Thai man in San Francisco, and the slashing of a Filipino New York City subway rider. They were hard to ignore, unlike the previous 2,900 or so.

To balance it all, we\u2019ve had the Biden executive order to remind us that Asian Americans have rights, as if we needed that. But, I guess, yes, apparently America did. Then, Biden came out during his vaccine announcement and doubled-down on his denouncement of\u00a0 the \u201cvicious hate crimes against Asian Americans who\u2019ve been attacked, harassed, blamed and scapegoated.\u201d

He went further than Trump ever did when he bluntly said, \u201cIt\u2019s wrong. It\u2019s un-American, and it must stop.\u201dWe needed that from the president. But will it work?

One thing I\u2019m seeing is a more concerted effort in the mainstream to include us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Vincent Chin<\/sub><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Recently, there was the front-page Arts story on Star Wars star Kelly Marie Tran\u2019s triumph over online bullying. Another story on the appointment of Tim Wu, the Columbia Law professor, as a tech advisor to Biden on the National Economic Council. It\u2019s important because of Wu\u2019s advocacy for \u201cnet neutrality,\u201d a phrase he coined that gave consumers equal access to internet content. More significant is his antitrust work and his advocacy for breaking up Big Tech, the purveyors of the next scourge, digital discrimination.

The big recent takeout, however, was the front page of the New York Times Sunday Review section on Asian American topic A: a faceless Asian American with the words, \u201cWe Need to Put a Name to This Violence<\/a>.\u201d

Like that will do it? Giving it a name? Shouldn\u2019t racist xenophobia, which everyone should rail against, be enough?

The fact is we are faceless and invisible still because we are many faces. A Thai man dies. A Filipino man is slashed.

Does naming Vicha Ratanapakdee, the 84-year-old man, killed in San Francisco by a black suspect, do it? Does naming Noel Quintana, the Filipino man slashed move you to protest?

Does it have the power of saying the name George Floyd?

The problem is we cannot go alone in this battle. We need the handle of \u201cAsian American\u201d or AAPI, or APA, or some derivation. There are too many of us. Trump says, \u201cChina Virus\u201d and perps attack a Thai man? A Filipino?

No, we are faceless because America has never gotten beyond seeing race as Black and White. Civil rights came in 1964? Asians didn\u2019t arrive in numbers until post-1965, and honestly, post-1980.

Brown sneaks into the Black-White paradigm somewhere. But what about Brown Asians and Yellow Asians? And Asians who are mixed Black and White? it\u2019s not one face, or one name. It\u2019s all of us.

But if we need to summon up a name, if we need to put a name to this violence, then let that name be one we all know and come to for strength, purpose, and unity.It\u2019s Vincent Chin. Still.

Like immigration, hate hits us in waves too. Chin\u2019s death in 1982 galvanized the social justice movement of one generation. This new rise of Asian American hate in 2021 has ignited the call to action for not just today\u2019s AAPIs, but for every previous generation that\u2019s still alive and kicking. And hurting still.

The Times said we need a name? Everyone already knows one. And he didn\u2019t get justice either.

Vincent Chin is still the hate crime that unifies all Asian Americans from Chinese to Filipino, from Honolulu to Bangor, Maine.

That\u2019s a face that reminds us all of the anti-Asian American hate that exists in America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

EMIL GUILLERMO<\/strong> is a journalist and commentator. He was on the Advertiser editorial board and a columnist for the Star Bulletin. A former host of NPR\u2019s \u201cAll Things Considered,\u201d he writes on race, politics, and culture.\u00a0 See his vlog at <\/em>www.amok.com<\/em><\/a>\u00a0 Twitter: @emilamok<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Related Stories:<\/strong>
<\/em>Filipino American Angelo Quinto Is Our George Floyd<\/a>
For Black History Month, Remember David Fagen<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Emil Guillermo OK, patriots, are you committed to masking up? Because according to President…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Candid-Perspective.jpg?fit=488%2C466&ssl=1",488,466,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Candid-Perspective.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Candid-Perspective.jpg?fit=300%2C286&ssl=1",300,286,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Candid-Perspective.jpg?fit=488%2C466&ssl=1",488,466,true],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Candid-Perspective.jpg?fit=488%2C466&ssl=1",488,466,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Candid-Perspective.jpg?fit=488%2C466&ssl=1",488,466,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Candid-Perspective.jpg?fit=488%2C466&ssl=1",488,466,true],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Candid-Perspective.jpg?resize=488%2C466&ssl=1",488,466,true],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Candid-Perspective.jpg?resize=488%2C466&ssl=1",488,466,true],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Candid-Perspective.jpg?resize=488%2C466&ssl=1",488,466,true],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Candid-Perspective.jpg?resize=488%2C466&ssl=1",488,466,true],"covernews-slider-full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Candid-Perspective.jpg?resize=488%2C466&ssl=1",488,466,true],"covernews-slider-center":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Candid-Perspective.jpg?resize=488%2C466&ssl=1",488,466,true],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Candid-Perspective.jpg?fit=488%2C466&ssl=1",488,466,true],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Candid-Perspective.jpg?resize=437%2C340&ssl=1",437,340,true],"covernews-medium-square":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Candid-Perspective.jpg?resize=271%2C250&ssl=1",271,250,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Candid Perspectives<\/a>","tag_info":"Candid Perspectives","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Candid-Perspective.jpg?fit=488%2C466&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6668"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6668"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6669,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6668\/revisions\/6669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}