Thoughts About 2021
Published:
Flashback on 2021
Sweet Bitter 2021
Looking back at 2021, I am surprised by how my 2021 was unfolded. Sweet bitter (not bitter sweet) best summarizes my experiences. That is, I managed to see some positive aspects among a series of the unfortunate events. I would like to summarize my 2021 with 4 keywords.
Racism
I have gone through several incidents of racism since I went to U.S. in 2015. But none of them shook my belief that “All men are created equal” than the incident where a black colleague (along with some white and indian colleagues) recklessly attacked asian scholars and labelled us as “over-represented in the academia”. BLM was just fueled by the tradgic death of George Floyd at that time and of course everyone in the department turned a blind eye on this incident, including the leadership in the department at University of Virginia. Initially, I was too innocent to believe that academia is equal for everyone as reseachers, regardless of their color, are only judged by the quality of research. I only found myself staggered by the reality later. Some black sholars claimed that “It is more difficult for a black scholar than other races to succeed in a white-dominated academia” and blah blah. And I have a few suggestions for these people: stop whining, and do not live in a cave. Check out the news like a white professor fake her black identity to get tenure. Or even utilize google scholar to search your asian collegues and see how many top journal papers they need to publish to just be your collegue and if they are “over-represented” because of their color.
Division
The United states is divided as the conflicts between republicans and democrates excerbates. Most importantly, none of them represent the interests of Asian, leaving us the ultimate loser no matter which party wins. Democrates, in the disguise of “equity”, rank people by the order of white, black, other, and asian. They care too much about “political correct” than doing really helpful things. They promote equity in housing. Look at the housing price and tent cities in Cali. They advocate equal opportunity for education. Check out the Affirmative actions bill in Cali. It seems to me that democrates misunderstand “privilege” with “equity”. Republican of course does not appeal to me at all. They downplay the pandemic and overlook common sense, let alone science. To name a few, many senates believe in some mind-boggling Qanon conspiracies (intentionally or not). Voting machines are rigged by hugo chavez. JFK jr is alive and is returning to Dallas. To conclude, I am aware of that no matter how wealthy or intelligent or dilligent I am, I cannot change the social status quo and I am always silenced.
Lies
Democrate lies, republican lies, CNN lies, and Fox lies. CNN: Peaceful BLM protests. Fox news: Election is rigged per sources. Military: Our drones only target terrorists. Republican: Jan 6 is not a coup. Democrate: US military’s retreat from Afghanistan is a success. I am truely astonished that no one has been hold accountable for their lies. Fox news anchors argue on court that their lies are too fake for peolple to believe in. Trump’s lawyer circus are still showing up on TV from time to time. All those TV programs and politicians are selling their propagenda rather than telling the truth. And the government tries to distract americans from their truggling life by triggering nationalism. US bombed the middle east: We identified and assasines terrists. US sent its troops all over the world: China is a threat to the peace. US topped the world in covid death tolls: China’s 2-week quarantine abuses human rights. I guess those people really don’t see the irony in their statements.
Hope
There will always be a glance of light in the darkest night. Although I cannot alter the environment, I can navigate my course of life. My research went well: my paper got accepted by AAAI-21, Expert Systems With Application, and my dissertation defense was successful. I managed to come back to China and found a good job in Beijing. Now, I am ready to embrace the transition from academia to industry and I realy enjoy this process as I learn many new things in my daily work. I am and will always be happy about all the decisions I made in the past 7 years.