Racism Against Asians
Incidents of racism toward Asian people on the increase during the pandemic.
October 18, 2020
At the first presidential debate, Donald Trump was asked to comment on his response to the pandemic. “It’s China’s fault, it should never have happened,” Trump said.
The coronavirus, sometimes referred to as the “Chinese virus,” “Wuhan flu” or several other racist statements by many prominent politicians, has spread throughout countries worldwide, becoming a global pandemic. As the virus spread across the world so did xenophobia and racism.
These statements by politicians can have an influence on their supporters, stigmatizing an entire region, unnecessarily blaming people for things out of their control.
“It makes me think about how ignorant people are these days,” senior Monica Le said. “Hearing people from high positions say things like that, it makes me wonder who the leaders of this country are and how close minded they are.”
After the coronavirus was discovered in China in December, quickly leading to an increase in acts and discrimination towards people of Asian descent. Videos of racial remarks and hate crimes towards Asians have garnered more attention through both social media and traditional media.
“I saw a post on Facebook about this one particular Asian American family who was booed out of a restaurant by a white man who was a CEO of a big company and were told to go back home,” math teacher Marybeth Bano-Rizzo said. “I cannot tell if it is because of COVID situation or because they are immigrants.”
CBS News has reported that there have been more than 2,100 anti-Asian American incidents of verbal assault, workplace discrimination, cyber bullying and physical attacks related to COVID-19 that were reported between March and June. Some of these attacks include:
- On May 6, at a San Francisco hardware store, an Asian-American man was yelled about “bringing that Chinese virus over here” and other racial slurs by an assailant.
- On June 9th, racial slurs and a glass bottle were thrown at an Asian woman who was putting her child in a car seat.
- On June 16th, An Asian woman was spat by a man saying, “Take your disease that’s ruining our country and go home,” while her dog was kicked.
As the pandemic and the racism related to it continue, people want to act for a change. “I feel as though people do not take the things I find offensive seriously, because racism towards Asians has been so normalized people seem to just look right past it. It does get very tiring,” Sr. Baonhi Dang said. “I would just like to encourage my fellow Asian Americans to keep spreading awareness and standing up for what’s right as change cannot happen without action being taken.”