Awareness Wednesday :: Xenophobia, Part II — Symptom of a Virus

coronavirus xenophobia - Mormon Women for Ethical Government

The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names. — Chinese Proverb

In the closing months of 2019, a novel coronavirus jumped from animals to humans and began spinning a web of infection, starting with the people of China and spreading with staggering speed worldwide. The virus, and its potentially deadly symptoms, are not the only thing being disseminated on a global scale. Xenophobia, particularly toward those of Asian descent, has seen a dramatic rise in the ensuing months, both here in the United States and around the world.

A young woman from Brooklyn reported that while visiting Washington D.C., a man started making faces at her on the metro. She tried moving away from him, but he approached her. “Get out of here,” he said. “Go back to China. I don’t want none of your swine flu here.” A week later, on a train in San Francisco, another man yelled, “Go back to China!” and threatened to shoot her.

A woman from San Francisco went to a hospital to get a flu shot. Walking down the hallway, she sneezed into her elbow, and a nearby woman yelled a racist slur at her.

A sample vendor in a wholesale store in Seattle told a part-Korean family to get away from the food samples, and also asked if they had come from China. “It just reminds [us] that when people look at us, they don’t see us as American,” they said.

A 13-year-old from Connecticut said her classmates have been calling her and other Asian-American schoolmates “Corona” and asking them if they eat dogs.

While visiting San Diego, a Japanese professor was told by a person passing on the street to go back to her “infected country.”

An Asian man was intentionally sprayed down with air freshener by another passenger on the subway in New York.

In Los Angeles a man on a subway directed a hostile rant at a nearby Asian American woman, saying, “Every disease has ever came from China, homie. Everything comes from China because they’re [expletive] disgusting.”

Hmong guests were turned away from two hotels in Indiana.

An Asian teen in California was bullied and assaulted, ending up in the emergency room.

Japanese tourists were detained in Bolivia over fear of the virus, even though none exhibited any symptoms or had traveled to China.

In Rio de Janeiro, a Japanese Brazilian law student was harassed on the subway by a woman, calling her a “Chinese pig… spreading diseases to everyone.”

In Sydney, Australia a Chinese man suffered a heart attack and passersby reportedly refused to attempt resuscitation. The man died.

A Taiwanese-American writer said, “I wish I could change my face,” after witnessing violent reactions to people of Asian descent on Twitter.

Around the world and in our own country, Chinese and other Asian people have been refused service and have been verbally and physically abused. Chinese restaurants are reporting a significant decrease in customers. People have even refused service from Asian doctors. Discriminatory statements have been disseminated by politicians and individuals at major news sources. And justification for discrimination hasn’t been limited to targeting Asian populations. Donald Trump threatened to close the Southern border due to the virus.

Xenophobia during outbreaks of diseases is nothing new. Ethnic groups have been persecuted many times due to fear of disease. Jewish people were blamed for the bubonic plague. Irish workers were accused of causing cholera and typhoid epidemics in the early 1800s. In the 1900s, Germans were blamed for the influenza pandemic. Syphilis was assumed to be a “black” disease and led to unethical studies on black Americans. In the 1980s HIV was unfairly associated with Haitians. The most recent Ebola outbreaks led to increased racism toward Africans. The SARS epidemic in 2003 motivated discrimination and racism toward Chinese communities. In 2009 the H1N1 virus was associated with Mexican-Americans.

We know, because of science, that infectious diseases don’t discriminate based on race or ethnicity — but humans do. Even the CDC felt a need to post the following information:

People of Asian descent, including Chinese Americans, are not more likely to get COVID-19 than any other American. Help stop fear by letting people know that being of Asian descent does not increase the chance of getting or spreading COVID-19.

Historically, many diseases have been named after the region from which they were thought to have originated. Both the Zika and Ebola viruses were named after the region from which they were discovered. And the erroneously named “Spanish” influenza, which killed millions worldwide in 1918, was labeled as such because Spain (a neutral party in WWI) was the first country to report deaths. Everyone else wanted to avoid the appearance of weakness. Unfortunately, this practice has only increased the negative stigma attached to a given disease. Because of this, the World Health Organization has identified best practices for the naming of infectious diseases, “with the aim to minimize unnecessary negative impact of disease names on trade, travel, tourism or animal welfare, and avoid causing offence to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional or ethnic groups.”

What is to be done about this? It can start with each of us.

First, acknowledge that xenophobia is a problem. Pretending it isn’t an issue is problematic in and of itself and feeds into racist and discriminatory narratives.

Second, when referring to the current pandemic, it is best to refer to it as the coronavirus or by the name of the disease, COVID-19. Avoid referring to it as the “Wuhan virus” or any iteration you may find on social media.

Third, don’t be a passive witness. An unfortunate phenomenon that has accompanied these occurrences of xenophobia is that victims of hate have reported that bystanders have been slow to intervene. Here is a helpful article about safely intervening when you witness harassment, outlining the “5 Ds of bystander intervention.” They are: direct intervention, distraction, delegation, delay, and documentation. Become familiar with these intervention strategies.

Unicef has also outlined ways that we can fight racism and xenophobia. Some of their suggestions include calling out hate speech and prejudice, teaching children kindness and how to talk about differences, and reporting attacks.

Finally, be kind, be generous, be courageous. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love, and of a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7).

To read the other posts in our xenophobia series, click here.