My mom showing me yet another article about Coronavirus.
As this is an extremely relevant topic, I believe it is best to discuss the Coronavirus.
News broke about this highly contagious disease around a month ago. I didn’t really pay too much attention because I had that mentality of “Oh, it hasn’t affected me personally yet. Therefore, I shouldn’t worry about it.” I thought it would be like ZIKA, where it was in the news for months during the Olympics, but would gradually fade.
Right when all the news was just breaking out about the Coronavirus, I called up some friends who live in Hong Kong and asked if everything was okay. They said it wasn’t as serious as the media has been making it out to be. And I thought, “Well, if they think everything’s okay. Then everything will be fine.”
But over the course of this past month, the virus has spread so much that it has created mass hysteria around the world. There are now upwards of 80,000 cases.
With this mass hysteria has also come xenophobia against East Asian people. Xenophobia is the concept of discrimination against people from other countries.
My East Asian friend and I were talking about Coronavirus and how people have been treating us differently. And at one point, she was telling me a story about how her father was on a flight back home.
He accidentally choked on his water and started coughing.
People around him looked disgusted, and he yelled back, “I just came back from Wuhan!”
I’m unsure of how much we can joke about this virus. I can’t tell if it’s one of those things that only Asian people are allowed to joke about or if it’s free game for anyone.
But as technology and the internet have advanced, so have people’s malicious tendencies and comments.
Therefore, as Coronavirus has spread, there has been an increase in racism and xenophobia against East Asian people. I say East Asian people because, although the first reported cases were from China, ignorant people basically believe that any person who resembles an East Asian person has the Coronavirus.
Now, I’ll be honest. I have also been lowkey freaking out about the Coronavirus. My mom sends me news articles about the virus everyday. I’m not lying:
A screenshot from a conversation with my mom.
It’s hard to talk about because there are so many aspects to this.
Obviously it’s concerning that there’s this highly contagious disease spreading across the world right now. I’m freaking out too! My friends and I are supposed to go on a cruise for spring break, and we all know what happened to The Diamond Princess…
But having people look at me and treat me differently just because I’m Asian is ridiculous.
I have not been out of this country in a year. Yet people are treating me like I just came back from Asia yesterday.
I would like to say that people are being sent back from their study abroad programs, vacations, etc. I know this will not make you feel better, but really, we have no idea who has come in contact with this virus. Anyone could have it. Which leads me to my main point of this blog: stop being racist. Anyone and everyone may get the Coronavirus. There’s no point in being discriminatory against people.
Now will I be washing my hands more often? Yes.
Will I be reading more news reports to understand, hopefully, what is going on around the world? Yes.
Will people stop being xenophobic after reading this blog post? Well, I would hope that the people who are reading my blog posts are not racist, but PLEASE!!
Lastly, will I be going on a cruise for spring break? Probs not.