What does solidarity mean? This is a question I’ve been grappling with since the pandemic started. It might be a strange topic to be thinking about, given that a lot of people are concerned with public health and vaccines, but I think their questions and mine are related. Think about it this way: aren’t the lockdown measures a symbol of solidarity? By complying with the stay-at-home orders, we’re demonstrating solidarity with the sick and vulnerable, friends and colleagues, our family, and even strangers.
“The Platform”
Like many folks I know, after an initial burst of productivity, I’ve started to watch a lot of TV shows and movies. For the most part, I’ve turned to comedy to help keep lightness and humour in my life but, every now and then, I’ve opted for choices a little more serious.
One of the movies that really stuck with me was “The Platform.” In it, inmates are assigned to live on a particular level in a vertical shaft. There’s no way off, unless they decide to chance it and leap down a giant hole in the middle. But if they choose to stay on, there’s a platform that comes down three times a day with a beautiful feast. The catch is, depending on what level they’re on, inmates might not get any food.
The protagonist, Goreng, soon figures out that there would be enough food for all the inmates, if the inmates on the higher levels eat and drink only what they need. But they don’t. And, in fact, sometimes the inmates purposely destroy what food remains after they’re done. When Goreng questions why the inmates do this, his ‘cellmate’ retorts, “Are you a communist?”
Spontaneous solidarity
It’s probably fair to say that the director of “The Platform” intended to present a political allegory of sorts, but I wasn’t clear on what the overall message was. Are we to be hopeful? Scared? Can solidarity be fostered, even when we do not know those with whom we build solidarity?
One of Goreng’s cellmates (he comes to have many throughout the film) mentions the concept of spontaneous solidarity. She thinks that solidarity can and should arise, that it is the only possible way of surviving their predicament. But how could solidarity arise spontaneously? Amongst strangers, competitors, and even enemies? Doesn’t it have to be nurtured and cared for?
Asian racism
After all, if solidarity could pop up spontaneously, would we have seen a rise in the number of racially-motivated hate crimes towards Asian-Americans? Since the coronavirus lockdowns started in mid-March, the number of hate crimes, and especially violent hate crimes, towards Asian-Canadians have increased dramatically. In the city of Vancouver, for example, such targeted violent crimes have doubled. And the attacks are almost always completely unprovoked. The victims often report that they were just out taking care of errands when the perpetrator(s) came up to them and began assaulting them. It has gotten to the point that some Asian-Americans are taking their go-pros and even weapons with them when they go out.
Science journalist Sonia Shah has described the increasing anti-Asian sentiments as the beginning of a new pandemic, one characterized by racism and xenophobia. I think she’s right. One Chinese-Canadian writer has likened what is happening to living in a “Brave New World.” Others have speculated that this might mean a magnification of the inequities already experienced by Asian-Canadians. That frightens me.
Thoughts on solidarity
In Solidarity of Strangers, Jodi Dean posits that there are three kinds of solidarity. First, solidarity might arise out of affection (17). In this case, we don’t demonstrate solidarity because we are united under a singular cause, but rather because we have feelings towards the other. This isn’t really helpful for Asian-racism, since the perpetrators of hate crimes aren’t likely to develop affection for their victims anytime soon. Second, solidarity might arise out of a common goal – but this too doesn’t help much since the racists won’t be motivated to work with their victims.
Dean’s third conception of solidarity might help. According to Dean, we can also have reflective solidarity, “the mutual expectation of a responsible orientation to relationship … [which] relies on the intuition that the risk of disagreement with accompanies diversity must be rationally transformed to provide a basis for our intersubjective ties and commitments” (3). I take Dean to mean that solidarity, then, need not rely on affection or a common goal. Instead, solidarity can be grounded simply in the expectations we have of others and our responsibility to meet the expectations of others. Like Goreng’s cellmate suggests in “The Platform,” perhaps solidarity can arise spontaneously if we reflect on what we owe each other simply as fellow human beings.
A problem
When it came to solidarity, Hannah Arendt took a political position. She thought that solidarity and political action were possible only when individuals act and speak with each other and together. So, action and solidarity are spontaneous and yet, that spontaneity reveals the fragility of action and solidarity – we can’t quite ensure that it will arise. For Arendt, this meant that we needed some kind of structure (like the American Constitution) to support what solidarity begins. Is this what Asian-Americans need?
A new way forward
The truth is, I’m not altogether convinced by Dean’s claim (at least, not yet, anyhow — I’m still reading her book). The skeptic in me wants to lean on her arguments a bit and see how they hold up. In particular, I’m not confident that her notion of reflective solidarity doesn’t implicitly rely on some level of affection (general good will) or common goal (the well-being of everyone). But, as a Korean-Canadian, I sort of hope that Dean is right.
If Dean is, in fact, onto something, then I think there’s hope for Asian-Americans in the post-COVID-19 world. Because if reflective solidarity is realizable, I think the North American community will stand up and become bolder in the face of Asian racism. And the 1 in 5 Canadians who are afraid to sit next to an unmasked Asian-Canadian will be the peculiar minority, and that the other 4 will stand up and protect their fellows. And I think that the new ‘normal’ might even mean addressing the race-based inequities that exist in Canada (and elsewhere).
For now, I encourage all of you to celebrate May as Asian Heritage Month in Canada.
Coming up next
Solidarity has become a ‘hot’ topic for the #AtHomeWithArendt writers – check back with us on June 10th for more on solidarity from Katy!
Resources for further reflection
Canadaland News “An Epidemic of Racism”
CBC Radio’s “Why aren’t there more Japantowns in Canada?”
Photo by Jayson Hinrichsen on Unsplash