May 8: (Make-Up Post) Antisemitism & Disease Throughout time, minorities have been used as scapegoats to blame misfortune on, and Jews are no different. On multiple occasions, Jews were targeted as disease vectors; during the Bubonic Plague, Jews were even targeted because they WEREN'T getting sick! This article (De Blasio's Pivot to Antisemitism) speaks on the mayor of New York City's response to (especially Orthodox) Jewish gatherings. (This has been reported on many different news sites--I hadn't heard of this news site before, so made sure to double check most of their facts, but they had the most interesting writing on this event that I could find so I chose to submit their piece). De Blasio (the mayor)  tweeted a post specifically calling out the "Jewish community" as a community that needed to get better at social distancing, even though statistically Jews are no worse at social distancing than any other community. The NYPD was also asked to target a gathering of Orthodox Jews. This gathering was already filed with the mayoral office, and assistance was granted from the local government to help ensure social distancing, but the help never showed up.

This is just one example of the many, many ways oppressed communities face increased surveillance, while white, Christian/secular gatherings are either ignored or treated with care instead of policing. This Guardian article discusses one specific example of this disparity of reactions: a Black man is beaten by a cop for going outside during quarantine during the same week police officers were seen handing out face masks to white people gathering without them. Some people have been criticizing those speaking out against this Antisemitic action by the NYPD because, although Jews are oppressed, they're still mostly seen as white and are treated with much less state-sponsored violence nowadays in the US than Black and brown communities. The criticism is that more focus should be paid to these Black & brown communities facing police violence than to these Jewish communities. However, the De Blasio article argues that "these connections [of violence], rather than pointing out a false equivalency between the relationships of Jews and non-Jewish communities of color to the state, ought to create a shared framework for co-resisting state violence." I would include the relationship to surveillance that Jews and non-Jewish communities of color face into this quote. While the surveillance used on white people resulted in materials that would increase their protection, both Jewish communities and communities of color faced a more violent consequence of this surveillance. Instead of fighting over who has it worse and whose stories of oppression deserve to be reported on, we should be organizing together to criticize the way surveillance mechanisms are being employed peacefully for white communities and violently against minority communities. 


May 1: Surveying Laziness  "Laziness does not exist. But unseen barriers do," says writer and teacher Devon Price. In the article, he talks about the underlying problems of things people blame the individual for; inability to finish schoolwork, turning to procrastination, etc. always point to underlying problems that are often hard for the individual to deal with without a helpful push from loved ones. Throughout the article, Price shares experiences he's had in trying to understand his student's inability to go to class/turn in homework. He details the care he put into reaching out to students who weren't performing well, and the real honesty they have responded with. One student with OCD always came to class late, one student was processing abuse in therapy right before class, another was switching medications and couldn't get out of bed some days; all of this he learned by being flexible and reaching out to students. This is an example of how the surveillance of "laziness" is so misplaced in society. If we abolished "surveillance" technology that we use today (e.g. the way food stamps are designed to make it obvious that people are using them) and instead created a mindset that the existence of these inequalities should instead result in the surveillance of billionaires and corporations, ensuring no one is exploited to the point of not being able to afford food, we could make an actual change in the world. Price gives one example of how this works, using his surveillance abilities (attendance, homework collection, etc.) to ensure a safer and more productive class space by checking in with his students instead of employing this surveillance punitively, thinking he is merely checking to see which students are too "lazy" to do their work. Using surveillance to notice the deeper-reaching problems instead of pointing out the "failure" of the individual could be a way that surveillance could be changed to help society as opposed to helping oppressors. 

He also discusses the ways that "some universities pride themselves on refusing to accommodate disabled or mentally ill students--they mistake cruelty for intellectual rigor". This reminded me of Oberlin's response to students' requests for a universal pass system. By placing "academic integrity" above the wellbeing of their students during an international pandemic, Oberlin shows that they care more about the surveillance of their reputation of "excellence" than they care about the surveillance of their reputation as a kind & equitable institution. When Oberlin accepted Black and female students, they risked appearing to the outside world as less academically challenging in the name of equity. Why has surveillance been employed to make colleges care more about the assumption that their college is challenging than that their college practices equity and cares about their students? 

April 24: Surveillance of Chinese Government Reaction The issue of trying to figure out exactly how much the Chinese government covered up is a hard one, firstly because most American new sources run anti-Chinese propaganda, and secondly because it's hard to go "to the source" because it's all in Chinese! I've read some interesting points on this topic, though, that I thought would be important to share, even if it's just to introduce the idea that maybe American is blowing China's reaction out of proportion. The first is that the Chinese government didn't try to cover everything up--they announced to International Health organizations on December 30th that a Sars-like virus had been spotted, and sent in officials to investigate. This announcement claimed that they were issuing an "urgent notice on the treatment of pneumonia of unknown case". In addition, Dr. Li Wenliang was an optometrist who warned about the wrong thing--he claimed that COVID was a recurrence of a Sars-like virus. Thus, while the government did call him in to ask him to stop spreading rumors, it's possible that's exactly what they wanted; for him to not claim that the virus was Sars because they didn't have proof yet. Also, he issued this warning on December 30th, after the Chinese government released their statement. I've heard arguments about this same sort of thing in Oberlin: should the administration have announced that they were meeting about possibly shutting the school down, or should they just tell us when they came to a decision? Should they promote 100% transparency, or should they try to identify the problem first and then share the news? In my opinion, it's possible that our American surveillance of China might not be lending them enough leniency. When people were warned of Covid, after officials figured out what the unknown virus was, many government didn't take the right precautions--and we offer them some leniency, admitting that most were just trying to do the best they could. I believe that China handled the situation better than any American media is portraying. 

April 10: Self-Surveillance vs. Feeling  During this crisis, I've been practicing self-surveillance a lot. What works in physics works, also, for my motivation: an object in motion stays in motion. Therefore, in order to stay productive, I've been keeping myself REALLY busy. I've assigned books for myself to read, places to walk to, have created elaborate meal plans for Shabbats and Passover that get me up at 10:30 and keep me busy for the whole day. I've made so many plans of things to do that I've started stressing myself out because I don't have time to finish all my self-assigned tasks! I started falling behind on my homework because I've been so busy...stuck in my house all day. All so I can stay "in motion" and not dip in my productivity. It doesn't help that all my relatives/neighbors/mom-y type friends have been posting about it all over social media: Here's how to stay productive under quarantine! Here are 100 things to do during quarantine! I understand that boredom can be dangerous, but this pressure to stay busy, busy, busy has seeped into my own feelings about how well I'm quarantining. This leads, for me, to a capitalist, unhealthy form of self-surveillance. Where in these Facebook articles does it say that we don't have to be producing things to be valuable? Where does it say that in this crisis, it's okay if you don't "stay in motion"--that it's okay if you allow yourself to grieve lost opportunities and the huge amounts of pressure put on your loved ones by lost jobs and food insecurity?

I think I've also been trying to stay "in motion" because I'm worried what will happen if I let my grief catch up to me. I don't just feel like I'm not allowed to grieve this--I feel like if I'm sad, my quarantine is failing. I've started surveilling not only my actions, but my emotions, too; when I catch myself in a moment of sadness, I force myself to get up, start moving, all to ignore feelings that are so normal to be feeling during these times. This pressure comes not just from social media, but also my unhealthy desire to be a support person for all my loved ones without ever letting them support me back. I feel like I not only need to produce things to prove that I'm making the most out of this tragedy, but also that I must be a stalwart protector for my friends. If I'm sad, then I'm detracting from one of the only things I can do for my loved ones right now: be happy and positive for them, be strong for them, be there for them. When did my ideas of aid become so individualist? When did I get so scared of my body's own, natural reaction to stress and grief? 

I do believe that self-surveillance can be useful. But when it upholds capitalist ideologies that say you are what you produce & consume, and asks you to ignore when your body is asking you "please, slow down and feel your feelings", then it becomes harmful. So for the rest of quarantine, I'm going to try to allow myself to be at rest when I need to. I'm going to slow down enough that I can feel what my body needs, even if what my body needs is to grieve. I'm going to allow myself to turn friendships into relationships of mutual aid, instead of one-way therapy sessions. I'm going to fight the capitalist, individualist, happy-centered mindset I've been fed and allow myself to be more honest about my needs. And, I think, I'm going to start posting about it on Facebook so hopefully some of my mom's friends can start thinking about doing that, too. 


April 3: Chinese vs. US Surveillance  I've heard a lot of talk about the Chinese doctor, Li Wenliang, who spoke out about the existence of the coronavirus on social media and was then reprimanded for it by the Chinese governments. Articles like this one talk about how the government's silencing efforts hugely affected the spread of the virus. From the outset of its creation, Americans have feared strong governments like the one China is so often reported on having, drafting its first constitution to give very little power to the central government, and only changing when it seemed impossible to continue on with the constitution it had. Even then, the Constitution still left many decisions up to the states, and people today still have a very strong sense of individuality and statehood that opposes too much centralized control.

It seems obvious, then, that American newspapers would be criticizing China's reactions. However, this criticism often comes across as racist or hypocritically anti-Chinese, because the US government and US corporations are doing the such similar things! All across America, doctors have been threatened to lose their jobs (and some have!) for exposing the awful conditions for health care workers during the crisis. This article (also linked below) talks about the threats. I've noticed a definite pattern lately of US surveillance (particularly surveillance being practiced by corporations as opposed to the government) receiving much less criticism than actions of a similar weight & topic in China.
I wonder where this stems from: Cold War sentiments lingering on? Racism? A fear of powerful government so strong that it blocks people from seeing the awful power that companies now have in America? A combination of all three? These differences also bring up questions of surveillance; it seems that our country has unequal surveillance, criticizing other foreign governments while letting things slide within our own. What does this surveillance inequality say about our values and our citizens?