Author: Julia Zhou

Atlanta Shootings

By: Julia Zhou

3/21/2021

On March 16th, 2021, a man opened fire on three spas in Atlanta, Georgia. Many were killed, and the attack seemed to be racially motivated.

In the attack, eight people died, six of which were Asian women. The six were: Soon Chung Park; Hyun Jung Grant; Suncha Kim; Yong Yue; Xiaojie Tan; and Daoyou Feng. They were attacked at the Gold Spa, Aromatherapy Spa, and Youngs Asian Massage. 

The perpetrator of the shooting was Robert Aaron Long. He was a customer at the spas.

The reason for these actions? Government officials strongly believe that the attack was racially motivated. Because of the recent COVID-19 virus and its alleged ties to Wuhan, China, Asians have faced a lot of hate. Though some victims of these attacks have not been Chinese, their attackers based their actions on the belief that they were Chinese and had carried the virus. 

Some examples of this racism are shown even almost 3,000 miles away: just recently, a 91-year-old man was pushed down purposefully for being Asian is in California. He passed away from his injuries. 

The suspect of the shootings, Long, has argued that the attack was not racially motivated, but his argument still points towards bias against women. Female and Asian government officials like Thai Senator Tammy Duckworth have worked against this racism and discrimination.

Asian citizens of America, particularly in Texas, New York, California have protested against this violence. They’ve made a statement go viral: “I don’t feel safe anymore”. 

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have visited Atlanta, encouraging those among the victims of the Atlanta shooting to stay strong. Harris seems to have specifically connected with these events – she’s Asian and a woman herself. 

Though some may argue that Long’s actions were not racially motivated, Asians and women deserve respect. Regardless of the current events, Asians should not be shunned or violated in any way. Though we at the Monty Times cannot force your opinion, please consider our beliefs.

Sources: 

abcnews.com

texastribune.org

theguardian.com

reuters.com

Daylight Savings 

By: Julia Zhou

3/13/21

If you take a look at the calendar, you’ll see that March 14th is marked: Daylight Savings Begins. No, this is not a national holiday, so sit right back in your seat before you run off thinking you’ll get a day off from school. Daylight savings time (DST), daylight savings, or summer time is a practice during which most people set their clocks an hour ahead. But why?

Benjamin Franklin first thought up the idea of daylight savings. During his time in Paris, France, he wrote a letter back to the colonies of his idea: during the summer, time should be thought of as an hour later, so that extra sunlight could be enjoyed and energy could be saved. The science behind it? 

There’s actually not much science behind daylight savings time. If a person’s full-time job ended at 6:00, since during the summer the Sun begins to set later, and they’ll end work earlier than usual, they’ll have more sunlight in the evening to enjoy. To summarize, daylight savings is beneficial to people with set hours of work and play: Adults with full-time jobs and children in school. With daylight savings, an extra hour will be available. 

When daylight saving time first began a century after Benjamin Franklin thought of it, farmers and early risers claimed setting clocks and general understanding of time ahead would cut short their morning light. However, daylight savings has been widely accepted in most households. 

With an extra hour of daylight for recreation, less electricity will be used. Observe your parents: do they practice daylight savings? 

Sources:

livescience.com

webexhibits.org

Six of Dr. Seuss’ Books Banned

By: Julia Zhou

3/16/2021

Since the late 1900s, Theodor Seuss Geisel, or Dr. Seuss, has been a source of entertainment and tradition for children and adults alike. His most famous works, like The Cat in the Hat, Horton Hears a Who, The Lorax, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Green Eggs and Ham, and more have helped build a multi-million dollar industry of children’s books. However, some of Seuss’ books have been controversial, and have now been banned.

Six of Dr. Seuss’ books –  And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, If I Ran the Zoo, McElligot’s Pool, On Beyond Zebra!, Scrambled Eggs Super!, and The Cat’s Quizzer – will be banned from bookstores like Barnes and Noble and eBay due to racist imagery. 

To clarify, “racist imagery” means drawings which show certain races of people in a way that is offensive. For example, an artist may draw an Asian person with slanted eyes, buck teeth, chopsticks, and a long braid, as is a common stereotype of Asian (most likely Chinese) people. But, this stereotype is not true almost all the time, and can come across as racist to some. 

In Seuss’ case, he did portray Asians in this way, and portrayed African American people in an exaggerated way. In some of his books, he drew Asians with the stereotypes as seen above and drew them like they had a lower social class than white people – the Asians carried the white people in some of his drawings and the white people carried weapons to show intimidation. 

Dr. Seuss had a history of racist imagery. Especially during the second world war, he drew art for propaganda to convince people to pay taxes. He also drew caricatures of German and Japanese people, most notably of a crowd of Japanese men in line to receive bombs, which was published after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Additionally, his stories have been racist or offensive to foreigners. One of Seuss’ strips showed a man passing through a store and buying an African American slave, and another said ‘… and the Wolf chewed up the children and spit out their bones… But those were Foreign Children and it really didn’t matter”. Another strip showed the differences between a Chinese and Japanese man, which was racist to both. 

Some people have argued that Dr. Seuss was a satirist and was simply joking through his art and stories, and his step-daughter has spoken out about his alleged racism and denied it. However, the final choice is up to you: was Dr. Seuss truly racist or not?

Sources: