Every corner of Chinatown discloses surprise after surprise. Going into the neighborhood near the Bowery, I see a lady wearing a cheongsam, looking up at a massive statue of Confucius, she closed her eyes and she held her hands together to pray for prosperity and good health. Behind the sculpture of Confucius is a skyscraper called Confucius Plaza, named after the great philosopher and politician of the Spring and Autumn Period.
Looking up, the clouds sat upon the red brick building causing the top to vanish. The streets in and around the complex were filled with people running errands. There was muffled Chinese music playing in the store opposite the complex. Walking in further, there were a few decorations of lanterns that were still up from Chinese New Year. The ambience reminded me of towns in China and Hong Kong.
Confucius Plaza is considered to be one of the cultural centre’s for Chinese Americans. The complex provides various types of facilities which cater to people of all ages. The complex has a pre school, a day care centre for little kids that have parents who work, the care services for the elderly, in addition to this, the complex provides spaces for pharmacies, grocery stores, banks and many more.
After reading an article in regards to the protests that took place at Confucius plaza, I was unable to imagine that almost forty six years ago, an approximate of 20,000 people marched across this land, to protest for their rights in equal employment and for their right to stay at Confucius plaza. A developer refused to hire Asian Americans workers for the construction of Confucius plaza project. They protested for months, tried to raise their voices against the developer. They were finally able to lift the immigration quotas. They used phrases such as All Minorities Unite. There was a shift in perspective, after a lot of discussion a large number of the population said that they did not want to cause trouble and possibly jeopardize their future, and the more recent and younger generation stated, “This is our country. We have rights. Let’s fight for those rights”
There was discrimination then, there is discrimination now. The recent breakout of the Corona Virus has everybody panicking, and second guessing everything. There has been a lot of discrimination towards the Chinese community due to people developing xenophobia against the Chinese community. There have been a lot of cases where people refuse to interact with people who are from the community or even come around them. It is important to be mindful about the actions that you take as it has the ability to be really hurtful and you could potentially be violating their human rights.
