Diane.
You know, the Department pays me no matter what,
but, uh, there's only
so many crossword puzzles I can do, so...
[ Laughs ]
You want to talk? Oh, no.
I mean, I -- I want to let
the Black firefighters go first.
O-- Do you see a line outside this door?
I-I know the past couple months
can't have been easy for you, either.
Hate crimes are hate crimes,
no matter the race.
My mom got, uh --
Well, she was spit on at the grocery store...
Mm.
...the same day that George Floyd...
My, uh -- my mom was leaving,
and a crazy maskless woman was like...
"If this Kung Flu is real,
it's because of people like her."
The woman both didn't believe COVID was real
and was blaming my mom for it.
♪
[ Whimpers ]
When my mom told me,
it actually felt like my organs were melting. [ Sobs ]
I was so hot with rage, you know,
remembering the times when I was a kid,
and, you know, people would say stuff to us.
And then, we would just go home.
Never to be discussed again.
And I -- And I didn't say anything to anyone here about it
because, you know, it didn't feel appropriate.
This giant, massive thing was happening --
a hate crime.
[ Whimpering ]
[ Sobbing ]
An atrocity so much more brutal and egregious.
You know, other people were hurting so much more.
I'm sorry.
I don't know why I'm talking to you about this.
I don't know why I'm doing that.
Because I'm a Black woman,
and my racist stuff is "bigger"?
Something like that.
That doesn't work.
It doesn't not work.
I know that since COVID,
hate crimes against Asian Americans
have spiked like crazy.
And yet, no one is talking about it --
no one but us.
Not the media.
No the -- [ Scoffs ]
I mean, grandmas and grandpas --
halmoni and haraboji.
People being shoved into walls
and off subway platforms.
You have Filipina nurses
who say goodbye to their families
and their own country to come here
to work the front lines of a pandemic
being attacked in the streets.
A 2-year-old and a 6-year-old
stabbed at a big-box store.
I mean, who stabs a 2-year-old?
And why is that not news?
Why are we so...
invisible?
I don't know.
I -- [ Sighs ]
I don't know.
I don't know either!
But how can we even make a fuss
when this is all it is relative to how horrifically
this country treats Black people?
I mean, I watched that whole video,
and in addition to the absolute horror that I felt --
and feel -- I also thought...
..."What do we have to even complain about?"
Travis, it's all bad.
I know you're trying to be generous,
but it is all bad.
There are no winners in the Oppression Olympics.
Okay?
And it's gaslighting if anyone tells you
or if you tell yourself...
[ Sobbing ] ...to be okay with the brutalities
being inflicted on your community
because worse things are happening to another.
♪