Life has changed for nearly all Americans over the past month. As the number of infected Coronavirus victims in the U.S. rises to over 140,000 with over 2,400 deaths, most Americans are committing to social distancing and self-quarantine. It appears as though the majority of people understand the potential danger of ignoring this crisis, and are empathetic to those effected. During these harsher conditions, Americans seem to be banding together to prevent a worst case scenario from occurring. This sense of unity under pressure isn’t innovative, it’s something many experienced after the 9/11 attacks. We look around and see companies providing discounts for important services, voluntary help by average citizens, and large donations by celebrities and athletes. These positive aspects of the pandemic are somewhat comforting in this chaos, but unfortunately this increased sense of community also comes with negative results.
While patriotism and solidarity increased in Americans post 9/11, so did the number of hate crimes committed against Muslims. The link for some was simple, the terrorist attacks were committed by extremist Muslims, thus all Muslims must harbor the same beliefs. This terrible logic and justification for bigotry is reappearing now against Asian-Americans. For racists their always has to be an enemy, and this time it happens to be Asian-Americans and specifically Chinese-Americans. The logic follows a similar vein, COVID-19 appeared in China first in large numbers, thus all Asians must be the cause of this problem and are more likely to be infected.
It might seem ridiculous that people genuinely believe this way of thinking but the data shows that since the Coronavirus pandemic there has been a rise in anti-Asian sentiments and attacks. In a report by San Francisco State University and A3PCON, where they observed 219 new articles between Feb. 9th and March 7th, it was reported that “Chinese and Asian American businesses reported large decreases in business (18%) as customers feared catching coronavirus in these establishments and their ethnic enclaves” as well as “Asian Americans of all ethnicities, including Southeast Asians and East Asians, faced shunning, harassment, and assaults (12%)”.
This rise in Asian-American discrimination isn’t without flaming. President Trump has gone on record referring to COVID-19 as the Chinese/Wuhan, despite recommendation from the World Health Organization that “Terms that should be avoided in disease names include geographic locations (e.g. Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, Spanish Flu, Rift Valley fever”. These words from the President are purposely meant to target Chinese and Asian-Americans and generate a national sense of racism. As the situation in the U.S. is only predicted to get worse, it is important to remember that the risk for Asian-Americans will likely also increase. Combating COVID-19 means fighting the discrimination and racism that comes with it.
Journalism 2.0 