Your Heart is Getting Colder

By Loc Nguyen / Winter 2021

Dear 17-year-old Loc,

Today, I write this letter to you tonight as a 29-year-old man who has experienced not too many things in life but basically, I am an adult. But it is not a big deal! Just think of me as your big brother who is confiding and admonishing you. If you can receive this letter, I believe that teleportation is successful, or humans can cross through the wormhole to make a time travel. This sounds interesting to you, right? I know you are a Physics lover. However, you probably won't read this letter because you are busy playing soccer games with your bare feet or you are stuck in a pile of unfinished math homework on your desk or you are immersed in online games. Right now, I am sitting, enjoying a hot cup of coffee and contemplating about life and society around. I am taking an interesting writing course. I really touched by the articles, speaking statistics, and emotional black and white images in the lectures. This course gives me insights into life's moments, understanding my own mindfulness. My mind seems like a prisoner bravely breaking the chains to step out of Plato's cave.

Now, I must ask you an important question. Have you ever thought your skin color would bring you trouble, Loc? I absolutely certain know your answers would be "No", "Never, or" I don't care ". Sure, I have no right to ask for another answer from you. As a teenager, your mind is busy enough to prove yourself, desire to be independent of the family, and focus on relationships. Indeed, living in a country where everyone does the same culture, has the same skin color, speaks the same language so racism is just a theory in books. Apartheid, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., or slavery are just boring lessons in History lectures. I know that you sometimes fell asleep during those boring History lectures and you just tried to learn by heart those lessons without understanding to get good grades in exams. You just think racism is simply a struggle for power or land between two or more different races. You always immediately switch channels when you catch the news on racism and discrimination are being somewhere in the world. You are only attracted by Hollywood movies, soccer games, or game shows.

And please, I beg you, don’t do that. As you got older, you started to discover that your heart is getting colder. The indifferent attitude toward the suffering of others will kill your feelings one day. Please, spend a few minutes reading about racism and you will realize your peaceful life is valuable. It will be exactly what you need to do at that moment.

Well, I am happy to tell you that over the next seven years, a big event is going to change your life. You will move to the United States. Then, you will realize that your race will become a minority and your skin color will no longer be exclusive. Your non-white skin color will be an issue because of diversity in the United States.

That is reality. No more no less. Just accept it.

Let me give you an example I have read in somewhere that will help you to easily visualize your future. A 16-year-old Black student in Columbus, Ohio wrote “Put him in black skin and let him live the rest of his life in America.” in her essay which is about the punishment for Hitler after the war.

Taking a writing course makes my heart suddenly warm again, my feelings and thoughts become deeper into life's moments and events. An image of Emmett Till's bloated and mutilated body, an image of two Blacks hanged in the indifference of the White crowd, an image of a young White woman screaming at Elizabeth Eckford- an African American student touched me a lot. They are victims of overt violence. But you will feel indignant at an image of cold faces of White men or the image of cheerful smiles of White men at a party. I believe that these images will also awaken the mindfulness buried deep inside you. "Colored lunch room", "We won't go to school with negroes" or "Don't want negroes in our school” were the toxic slogans easily encountered at that time. Google them, look at them and you will feel what I am feeling right now.

Stay strong. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Take a few deep breaths in.

In 2019, the whole world will experience a huge unexpected event, the Covid-19 pandemic. The Covid-19 pandemic will explode dramatically in 2020 and take the lives of tens of millions of people around the world. Nowadays, the pandemic is changing our world. In “an Era of Face Masks”, most people are going out with their faces hidden under their masks but the masks are not big and thick enough to cover the artificial faces of evil people. Those evil people are taking advantage of people's confusion to commit intentionally their racist behaviors. They deliberately blamed the Asians for the pandemic which was intended to cause hatred and unrest between Asian- American and the rest in the United States.

Last week, I was shocked when my classmate shared about the attacks targeting elderly Asian- Americans. I found the news about an 84-year-old man who is dead after a terrible daytime attack in San Francisco and a 91-year-old man pushed to ground in Oakland's Chinatown. Right now, I'm really worried and scared because they are playing in other people's lives. Perhaps they are contributing to moving the pendulum away from its equilibrium point. I always tell my parents to be careful when going out on the street at this sensitive moment. Because we can become reluctant victims of racism reluctantly and unexpectedly.

You have watched "Back to The Future (1985)", a Hollywood classic movie, and you believed what could change in the past affects the present and possibly the future. You have things to do. Always love your skin color, your race, and your culture. Do not forget. You must always respect other skin colors, other races, and other cultures.

Don’t be afraid to live your life. The Earth is just a tiny blue dot in the universe but it is bigger than Mercury and Venus in the Solar System. We are also tiny blue dots on the Earth but we are important parts of our family, our community, and our society. I believe that your own changes will affect the environment around you. I believe this letter is long enough to change your mind about racism that you once saw in shallow ways.

Brace yourself. Loc Nguyen