Fight the Virus, Not the People

By Izzy Zhang '20

A few weeks ago, my sister told me that two of her friends –who were both Chinese international students– were pelted with eggs from a passing car as they walked back from the campus gym. Although the motivation behind this incident was unclear, it follows a disturbing trend of attacks towards Asians across the world since the Corona pandemic emerged.

In New York City, a Chinese man was followed to a bus stop then hit over the head in front of his 10-year-old son. In California, an Asian American teenager was physically assaulted by bullies in his high school who falsely accused him of having the coronavirus. In London, a Singaporean college student was brutally mobbed by a group of men and now needs multiple medical operations.

Asians experience a double threat amidst this crisis. Like everyone else, we worry about contracting the virus itself, but must also grapple with rising xenophobia that manifests through these racially charged attacks. Just as Asian-Americans started to experience more political representation, the Corona pandemic fueled torrents of bigotry and blame, which all but eliminated this sense of optimism. As Grace Meng, Congresswoman of New York’s 6th district stated: “Hearing stories consistently from around the world where people are being harassed and assaulted really reminds me that oftentimes we are, as a community, still viewed as outsiders.”

Unfortunately, scapegoating minorities during times of fear is not a recent phenomenon; rather, it has been a recurring pattern throughout American history. For instance, the 9/11 attacks unleashed waves of Islamophobia that marginalized Muslims across the country. Similar to how Asians today are irrationally accused of spreading the coronavirus, Muslims were ignorantly blamed for the actions of Al Qaeda. Muslim communities also experienced racist verbal and physical attacks; data compiled by the FBI reveals that the number of anti-Muslim hate crime incidents spiked in 2001, from 28 to almost 500 cases. That number has declined since then, yet remains much larger than levels reported before the 9/11 attacks (1).

Indeed, the ongoing stigma against America’s Asian and Muslim populations even reflects antagonist sentiments towards Catholic and Jewish immigrants a century ago. They, too, were seen as foreign and strange and “un-American.” It just takes some precipitating event, particularly one with harmful economic repercussions, to unveil stereotypes that have existed for decades.

At least in 2001, President Bush continuously denounced Muslim harassment. In his September 17 address, Bush said that “the face of terror is not the true faith of Islam” and that “America rejects bigotry. We reject every act of hatred against people of Arab background or Muslim faith” (2). Now, however, political rhetoric such as Trump’s insistent labeling of Corona as the “Chinese Virus” only further incites xenophobic attacks.

Efforts to hold the Chinese government accountable must not be conflated with the discrimination and marginalization of Asians. Hopefully, one day we will view this anti-Asian hysteria with the same contempt with which we view anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish outbursts from the past.

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1. Kuang Keng Kuek Ser, "Data: Hate Crimes against Muslims Increased after 9/11," PRI, last modified September 12, 2016, accessed March 31, 2020, https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-09-12/data-hate-crimes-against-muslims-increased-after-911.

2. "President Promotes Compassionate Conservatism," The White House, last modified April 2002, accessed March 31, 2020, https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/04/20020430-5.html.