Memes! --- Dilemmas and Contradictions in the age of COVID-19 presented in memes

Yvonne Lian, 2020

Dilemmas and Contradictions in the age of COVID-19 presented in memes In one of the most iconic photos spread on the internet for COVID-19, a person is wearing full-body protection gear from his hair tip to his toenails, while a sign which hangs from his body writes in bold letters “COVID-19 is a lie.” The absurdity of the scene is marked by the dissonance between this Californian protestant’s actions and words. Despite the recent protests that have arisen in many states, fueled by the president, throughout the country, many people have taken the disease seriously. Many thoughtful events such as the online concert One world together at home have been performed to pay tribute to the essential workers on the frontline, who go out from their homes so we can stay safe at home. In the time of quarantine, many memes have been created to record or in reaction of the COVID-19 progress, our people/leaders’ reaction towards it. Memes are an outlet in which people deal with such uneasy times, times where no social scripts have been written for us to follow neatly. All people are struggling in one way or another. Through creating the memes, people discuss and connect with others to understand the life that we are living right now. Some give a humorous twist to classic cultural references to emphasize social distancing: The famous Beatles Abbey Road album was altered such that the members try to stay 6 feet from each other while walking through the crossroad (Appendix 1). In another similar one, the well-known stand by me poster is altered to ‘Don’t stand by me.’ The four protagonists are also shown wearing masks, where one even puts on a gas mask (Appendix 2). All of these somehow see to exacerbate the madness that we are in, which no one from the last century would have expected. Other memes provide a platform where people can debate their opinions on controversial topics. I argue that these memes are light-hearted representations of heavy contradictions and dilemmas faced in societies.

One of the memes is a re-creation of the famous trolley dilemma. The dilemma is between keeping the trolley on the same track but kill the whole car of people inside, or sacrifice one people by changing the track and saving the people in the trolley. In this classic problem, people are contemplating if the worthiness of life can be quantified and the ethics behind actively causing death. This COVID-19 meme is a play on the original: Instead of having two tracks, it only presents one track where countless people tied in ropes lies. From the short description on the side, the readers understand that the bus represents the company and the interest it presents (Appendix 3). The people tied to the tracks represent the workers who are going to the sacrificed if the person (company owner) actively stop the trolley. If everything goes according to usual circumstances and no one comes to interrupt, these workers will be sacrificed. The creator is arguing that for these blood-sucking companies, giving up a few lives are acceptable and are just discardable losses.

However, even though this meme presents a simple case and offers a straightforward solution of stopping the trolley (business), it is not that simple. When the company stops

operating, the workers are let go. This, however, disproportionally affect the blue-collar workings. These are also the people who are more likely not to have savings to purchase daily necessities and have a reliable shelter. While most people imagine that multi-million franchise can afford to let workers go on paid-leave, reality has proved it a bit more problematic. Companies, J.Crew, Virgin Australia, Macy’s, Nordstrom, H&M, Gap, etc. and so many more are either filing for bankruptcy or have closed many retail stores. Along with it are millions of people who had been laid off. What is left out of the headlines are also the countless small businesses that are forced to close. Service industries and financial institutions, including restaurants, movie theatres, stock markets, factories are all shut down. Heading towards an unprecedented and unexpected recession, 10 million people have filed jobless claims in just two weeks in April (Frazier, 2020). This, however, will further exacerbate the unfortunate circumstance: As consuming have less money to spend (on non-essential goods), more businesses close down, and more workers are let go. My mail are surged with discount emails from all stores, all of whom are struggling to survive. A survey has shown that 12% of Americans have lost jobs directly due to COVID-19, and this number is expected to spike continuously. Moreover, 6.6 million Americans have applied for unemployment benefits in a single week. Hence, it’s not surprising that one of America’s biggest COVID019 worries is the impact on personal financial situation, at 74.4% (Frazier, 2020).

This meme was posted on March 24, when people are just beginning to grasp the seriousness of the pandemic. Now in May, the businesses are starting to reopen, and people have begun to protest. Decision-makers had temporarily stopped the trolley, but now it is beginning to slowly start the trolley again. How many employees are tied to the rails now?

As previously discussed, many workers were being laid off. Yet, there are essential workers who are fighting at the front line and providing for us so that we don’t need to leave home. Unlike the highlighted medical workers, farmers, who provide us with food on shelves and who are made up of many migrant workers, are being ignored. In the meme, we see a Latino woman holding up a box of tomatoes, on which is written ‘Migrant women feed the world.’ She is wearing a tightly sealed surgical mask while her eyes are closed, hiding her wearisome expression (Appendix 4). According to the dictionary, a migrant is a person who moves to a place from her hometown to seek for work or better living conditions. However, the current situation seems to counter this dream. Most of this country’s farmworkers are migrants, mostly Hispanic or Latino (McCoy, 2020). Though they were the ones who provide our daily pantries and food on the shelves, they are left unappreciated and unprotected. Like all essential workers, they are especially vulnerable in contracting and spreading the virus. Similarly, they have limited access to resources and protection. To worsening the situation, the Trump administration is calling to lower the wages of migrant workers to provide relief to the farm industry (McCoy, 2020). Yet, these are the people who are already among the lowest-wage earners; and the government is trying to lower the wage of the already low-waged earners. They are also not eligible to receive a stimulus check from the government. To make matters worse, almost none of these workers have the privilege of employer benefits such as insurance or paid leave. Therefore, even when they are feeling sick, their channels for help are limited.

This is in sharp contrast to what Jacobsen found in the article ‘When Coronavirus Emptied the Streets, Music Filled it’. The author mentions that many people flee to their second homes from major cities in order to escape the spread of the virus. It is a very reasonable choice people make since everyone prioritizes their own safety. However, the local citizens also have a fair argument to say that these people only come to these second homes as a refuge, and brings nothing but threat to the neighborhood. Unlike the privileged, the migrant workers don’t have a choice but to stay and endure the inequality. Furthermore, about two-thirds of U.S. farmworkers are undocumented immigrants from Latin America (Padgett, 2020). Ironically, these essential workers who gave their everything are the ones being detained. ICE continues to implement the current administration’s policy to detain as many undocumented immigrants as possible, despite their importance in frontline jobs.

In conclusion, memes speak for the countless lives have and are being changed by this unforeseeable outbreak of the pandemic. In these difficult times, the problems that have existed but left unnoticed in ‘normal lives’ have resurfaced and are again brought to our attention. The contradictions in humanity are increasingly intensified and challenged in various ethical problems highlighted by the pandemic. From deciding who got to attain protection, to directly or indirectly influencing whom to save, everything is still in the perpetual game of power.

Reference:

1. McCoy, M. K. (2020, April 15). Advocates Raise Alarm About Migrant Worker Safety Amid COVID-19. Wisconsin Public Radio. https://www.wpr.org/advocates-raise-alarm-about- migrant-worker-safety-amid-covid-19

2. Danziger, P. (2020, April 3). List Of Retail Companies On Bankruptcy Watch Is Growing Fast Amid Coronavirus Crisis. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/pamdanziger/2020/04/ 03/retail-companies-on-death-watch-is-growing-fast-as-covid-19-puts-non-essential- retailers-on-life-support/#5458ad2025ea

3. Frazier, L. (2020, April 14). Survey Tracks How COVID-19 Is Affecting American’s Finances, With Grim Results. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizfrazierpeck/2020/04/ 14/survey-tracks-how-covid-19-is-affecting-americans-finances-with-grim-results/ #5a8897d8653f

4. Padgett, T. (2020, April 7). Undocumented Migrants: If We’re “Essential” Workers During COVID-19, Why Detain Us? | WLRN. WLRN. https://www.wlrn.org/post/undocumented- migrants-if-were-essential-workers-during-covid-19-why-detain-us#stream/0