Trigger Warnings – Violence, Assault, Racism and Racial Slurs.

The virus does not discriminate, but we humans clearly do. Discrimination is an illness we have been suffering from for years to come. People have been holding unfair social attitudes against each other, which include negativity, prejudice and the intolerance of understanding. In today’s fearful pandemic world, stigmas have fueled the unkind and unsafe practices of baseless suspicion and overt hatred. The psychological impact of this pandemic not only includes fear, anxiety, mass hysteria and loneliness but also the emergence of a significant stigma, ‘othering.’ People have categorically blamed the entire Asian community for the existence and spread of the Covid-19 virus. In this article, we will explore the harmful stigmatisation towards this community, as we live through this pandemic and how we can do better in helping the Asian community.

At the beginning of this pandemic, the narrative we followed was – Corona was the deadliest virus of all. People were losing control of their reality, there was a lack of explanation from scientific communities across the world due to the novelty of this virus and an unhealthy way to regain control is to blame other people. The people’s fear of the unknown drove them to collectively label and segregate themselves from the Asian community during this pandemic. The narrative changed to stigmatizing China and politicizing Covid-19. A study published by the American Journal of Public Health argued that former President Donald Trump’s first “China virus” tweet on March 16 2020, was directly responsible for a major increase in anti-Asian hashtags.

An “infodemic” of misinformation, rumours and derogatory terms such as ‘Kung flu Virus’ and ‘Chinese Virus’ spread like wildfire. Subconsciously, people began to directly associate the face of an Asian with the virus. Another study conducted by the Pew Research Centre stated that 20% directly cited former President Donald Trump and his rhetoric about China as the source of the pandemic, as one of the reasons for the rise in violence against Asian Americans.

Unfortunately, as other politicians continued to pass racist and misinformed comments the Asian community became the culprits of this pandemic, with no fault of their own.

Today our Asian Community is struggling through a dual pandemic of blatant racism, physical abuse and the threat of the Coronavirus. A national report by Stop AAPI Hate recorded 6,603 hate incidents against Asian Americans from March 19, 2020, to March 31, 2021. The number rose to 9,081 by June 2021. Chicago SUN-TIMES reported a case of a 60-year-old Chinese American man who was attacked by two people. According to witnesses, the aggressor threw a log at the old man, accused him of having the virus, spat at him and told him to go back to China.

The Washington Post reported a case in May 2020 where Dr. Lucy Li was verbally attacked with the words, “Why are you Chinese people killing everyone?”

Many Indians living in the North East have also been subjected to an increase in racial slurs such as “chinky” and “chow mein.” Northeasterners have been spat at, called “coronavirus” and told to go back to China.

Following the Chinese New Year in February 2021, hateful comments flooded Instagram such as, “I normally would wish Happy New Chinese Year but after last year events and pretty much destroying the world I say sod you lot.” Similar comments were filled with loathe and discontentment on their auspicious day.

Unfortunately, by stating these horrifying and upsetting incidents, we have not even scratched the surface of the extent to which people went to harm the Asian community across the world. Centuries of stigmatisation against the Asian community has been completely exposed during the pandemic. In 2015, the World Health Organisation renovated the guidelines in naming viruses and specifically stated that a virus should not be named after a region or ethnic group as it can result in racial discrimination against people who are from the virus’s birthplace. It expressed the importance of a name on a global scale. The “co” stands for Corona, “vi” for virus, “d” for disease and 19 because the disease emerged in 2019. The name is Covid-19 or Coronavirus and NOT “Wuhan Virus,” “Chinese Virus” or “Asian Virus.”

Our responsibilities as caring citizens of this world are abundant yet simple. They include protecting the Asian community from cruel acts of violence, preventing the spread of any racist comments, using the power of social media to spread positivity, to silence the hate and amplify support for the community and to constantly share accurate and scientifically proven information regarding the virus to mitigate fear and blame.

Our fight is against Covid-19, not against each other. For over a year and a half, we have been surviving the pandemic, but the Asian Community has been surviving stigmatisation for centuries. Today, there is a vaccine for the Covid-19 virus, but is there any sign of a cure or vaccine for racism?

– Urveez Kakalia and Ferangiz Hozdar.