The COVID-19 outbreak recently triggered troubling responses toward Asian people. Within the past few weeks, the Boston Globe, New York Times and MarketWatch reported verbal assault against Asian American university students, protests against local Chinese businesses, and the harassment of Asian passersby in cities. The clear takeaway is that the coronavirus outbreak shouldn’t be used as an excuse for racism, as there shouldn’t be any excuses to begin with.
These incidents aren’t anything new. As seen during the Ebola, SARS and MERS epidemics, there are people who weaponize these illnesses to justify discrimination by associating sickness with certain nationalities.
This pandemic is not what makes racists discriminate in the first place, though. The outbreak is just an opportunity to outwardly express their deep-rooted racism. The harassment toward many Asian people in response is a virus in itself.
Not only are hostile reactions offensive, they also damage the reputations of Asian-owned businesses and inadvertently, their livelihoods.
“The virus has affected our restaurant a lot, because people are saying that people from China have a virus in our restaurant,” Oakland Chinatown café owner Karen Fong said in an interview to NBC Bay Area. A crowd typically packs Fong’s business, but the café has emptied since the rumors first spread. Other Asian American-owned businesses and even Uber drivers have lost clients as a result of the panic.
Even worse than the protests against Asian run businesses is the generalization of Asian ethnicities. Many people of Asian descent who live in the West face ostracization despite being Western natives. For instance, two UK teenagers yelled “coronavirus” as they assaulted Pawat Silawattakun, a Thai man, leaving him with a broken nose. It’s bad enough that Chinese people are being targeted, but the ignorance of other ethnicities makes it worse.
Furthermore, some claim that Chinese people are “unclean.” People who make such a generalization fail to realize that not everyone has access to clean food or water. Many can only settle for what is available. Furthermore, considering the novelty of the strain and the population density of China, even perfect hygiene wouldn’t have stopped the spread of the virus.
Although the root of racism is more fundamental than just the coronavirus, I expect people to be less ignorant, more considerate and at the very least, less obvious about their racial prejudices. The virus doesn’t see race; avoiding Asian people won’t prevent anyone from contracting the disease. If you genuinely are worried about getting sick, your concern should be focused on protecting yourself, and not hurting others.
TCHS School Newspaper