Growing up in California, I have not had much experience with racism against Asian Americans. I have grown up very sheltered and privileged to not experience much racism. However, in recent times with the rise of COVID-19 cases, the FBI has reported that Chinese and Asian Americans are now the victims of an increase in hate crimes due to the global outbreak.
So many cases have been highlighted on the news. Recent cases include the stabbing of a 2 year-old and a 6 year-old at a Texas Sam’s Club by someone who thought the family was Chinese and spreading the disease. In Queens, a 44 year-old man was charged with aggravated harassment after he harassed and pushed a 47 year-old Asian man who was walking his son to a bus stop. In New York City, teens attacked a 51 year-old woman and accused her of causing the coronavirus.
In this climate, as we should all be exceedingly grateful to the healthcare workers who risk their lives to save ours, we should expect that people would choose to be as nice as possible to those who do not even have the proper equipment to protect themselves. However, there are more and more stories of sick patients spitting on Asian nurses or parents refusing to allow “Asian appearing” healthcare workers to treat their children. Asian doctors everywhere are being told to “go back to f——- China.”
It is heartbreaking to hear that these workers, who risk their lives each and everyday, exposing themselves to the virus, are being blamed for an entire pandemic.
Thankfully, I continue to abide by the Safer at Home orders and maintain social distancing when I make trips out for food. Although you would not expect this level of hatred and xenophobia in California, I am beginning to become more afraid of people’s reactions.
Every day, I read stories of hateful xenophobia. I feel fortunate to live in a place where these violent acts do not directly affect me. I know other people in California, though, who, until the government required citizens to wear masks in public, were avoiding wearing masks to keep people from thinking they had the virus.
In this toilet-paper-buying, meat-hoarding frenzy, the realities of the situation sometimes escape me when I am sheltered at home. I can see, though, how some people are starting to react to me, the side glances when I walk past them in my sky blue medical mask. It is uncomfortable.
The rise of xenophobia with a new infectious disease is not a new thing. As people search for a scapegoat, it is not really a surprise, either. People have been blaming populations for pretty much as long as history has been recorded. From blaming African Americans for ebola to blaming the Jewish population for the bubonic plague, this has been happening for centuries. But, it is 2020 and as we work to become a more accepting society, we should not be using any disease as an excuse for racism.
Every Asian American out there is working just as hard as every other American to avoid getting the coronavirus. We are all wearing masks and only making essential trips out for food. Our food is not dirty; you do not need to boycott our grocery stores. We wash our hands just the same, and we keep clean just as well. I like soy sauce, and I eat white rice with as many meals as physically possible, but really, don’t a lot of us? I am not going to give you coronavirus and, most likely, the people you see who look like me in the grocery store will not either. The only difference between us and those who avoid us is that we do not have the luxury of ignoring the xenophobia that has swept this nation in the wake of the coronavirus.