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Kota Furusho

Discrimination against Asian Students due to the COVID-19 pandemic

Despite Asia’s population making up more than 58% of that of the world, Asians are often mistreated and disrespected in other regions of the world such as Europe and North America. Due to the COVID-19 Global pandemic, discrimination against the Asians have intensified significantly. Diseases and outbreaks are a major part contributing to the growth of xenophobic attitudes - their causes have always been blamed on ethnic groups without actual reasoning, but rather on the basis of their race. Examples of where this has been seen include the outbreak of HIV, which blamed Haitian Americans, the 1918 influenza pandemic, blaming German Americans and the swine flu in 2009 which focused the blame on Mexican Americans; the list goes on.


With the first of the COVID-19 cases being recorded in China, the pandemic has brought immense hatred and blame towards Asians, most of which has been directed at the Chinese. Currently, the United States is struggling to cope with the pandemic that has taken the lives of more than 700,000 people in the country alone (and counting). The pandemic has also put millions of people around the world out of work and has had an enormous impact on the global economy. The great majority of the economy, including private firms and companies, have crashed due to the impacts of COVID-19. Citizens of these countries, having to suffer these effects, have put the blame on the Chinese, falsely and offensively deeming them the responsible race for the party, where it then spread to the rest of the world. Former President of the United States Donald Trump has referred to the virus as the “China virus” and the “kung flu,” which has encouraged more hate against the Chinese. Furthermore, racist aggressors have gone beyond solely the Chinese to attack Asians in general. During a second grade virtual Zoom class in Orange County on the 20th of August 2020, a boy said, “I don’t like China or Chinese people because they started this quarantine.” This implies how not only adults use discriminatory remarks, but they are also bringing up future generations in a way that ingrains hateful prejudices that could stay with them for the rest of their lives, making it impossibly difficult to fight for a more equal and just world.


Many Chinese Americans and Asians living in western regions such as Europe and America have become vulnerable during the escalating pandemic situation. Universities are places with a huge amount of cultural and racial diversity, and there have been many cases of abuse and bullying targeted at Chinese Americans students. Even though many may have spent the majority of their lives in these regions, they are still abused because of their cultural backgrounds and their families. They are human beings too and are in no way inferior to Americans. A 17-year-old student in Brooklyn named Limin Li was asked by classmates, “You want to go to a wet market together and get corona?”


“They think that they’re funny,” she says. But in her view, “these were micro-aggressions.” Not only have students openly expressed their dislike for other Chinese students, but there have also been countless violent assaults that go beyond simple micro-aggressions. Bullies in the San Fernando Valley accused a 16-year-old Asian boy of having the coronavirus solely because of his race before Los Angeles public schools closed campuses in mid-March. They attacked him to the point where he had to be taken to the emergency hospital. As the COVID-19 outbreak worsened in these countries, classes were moved online. However the situation online was even worse than in person as social media took the stage. All over the world, people used social media as a platform to express their anger towards the situation, sending hate messages and even death threats towards Asians. People online felt stronger and a lot more arrogant online as they had many people backing them up, and they were able to recognise common feelings with each other.


The hate against Asians is very likely due to ingrained societal values and prejudices, as millions of people have lost loved ones to the virus and even more have been affected in some way or the other by the situation. On top of this, it is natural human nature for people to want to remove any uncertainty and pinpoint the blame on someone else for any misfortune whatsoever - during trying times, rational thinking may become limited. In an environment where the majority of people have common characteristics and only some are left out, they will look smaller and more vulnerable to attack.


While it may be tempting to take advantage of vulnerable people and blame things on them, it is not the right thing to do. Going against what we know is right and dividing humans on the basis of race isn’t going to make the situation suddenly improve - rather, it will instead be the cause of pressing societal problems that will leave a permanent mark on society. Attacking someone else because of their cultural and racial background does nothing but slow us down from being able to live life free of COVID-19 again. In order to tackle this pandemic effectively, it is vital that people all over the world work together to get through these tough times.


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