The incident follows two other attacks against Asian Americans in New York on March 10. Last week, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio condemned the coronavirus-related attacks during a media roundtable. “Right now, we’ve seen particularly troubling instances of discrimination directed at Asian communities, particularly in the Chinese community,” de Blasio said. “This is unacceptable.”
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that the city’s Hate Crime Task Force would be investigating potential crimes, ABC News reported. “To be clear, there is zero evidence that people of Asian descent bear any additional responsibility for the transmission of the coronavirus,” he said. During disease outbreaks and mass hysteria, attacks on marginalized communities are not an exception but a common occurrence. Far too many people become concerned with what a group of people is doing as opposed to how an epidemic is being spread. Xenophobia and racism creates the conception that any behavior a specific group is doing is “suspicious or even at fault for spreading disease,” The Atlantic reported.
Natalia Molina, a professor of American studies and ethnicity at University of Southern California’s Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Science told ABC News that the country will continue to see the spread of COVID-19 as long as people are more concerned with how a race acts as opposed to properly understanding the disease. “We’re still more worried about someone looking Asian coughing into their shirt,” she said. Molina added that despite more research, scientific information, and understanding of diseases available today, people continue to engage in racial stereotypes. Molina noted that stereotypes are amplified by not only the public but politicians. A number of politicians have referred to the coronavirus as the “Chinese Virus,” on social media including Donald Trump and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
The spread of misinformation and microaggressions, including referring to the virus as “Chinese” can have dire effects. According to Business Insider, research published in the U.S. National Library of Medicine in 2015 found that experiencing microaggressions increased incidences of depression and suicidal ideation in people of color. As adults and world leaders make microaggressions toward Asians, the action becomes common amongst others, even children. TIME magazine reported that children in Ontario, Canada, thought it would be fun to pretend to test Asian peers for coronavirus. These are all learned behaviors.
Josue David Cisneros, professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has studied this phenomenon. “It is not surprising that a new disease leads to public fear, stigma, and the scapegoating of certain kinds of people because we tend to understand these events through our past disease rhetoric, which is rooted in fear, stigma, scapegoating,” Cisneros told Business Insider.
In addition to comments made by politicians, media coverage of outbreaks and epidemics can lead to misconceptions of reality. Researchers at Lehigh University found that coverage of the SARS outbreak in 2002-2003 created negative images of Asians leading to increased emotional effects.”Rather than focusing on relief efforts by the government and actions taken to contain the epidemic, mainstream media chose to simply expose and repeatedly accuse the Asian population of initiating the spread of SARS,” the researchers found.
The rise of xenophobia against Asian Americans has prompted the Anti-Defamation League and the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans, along with 258 other groups, to write a letter to lawmakers to address the “growing tide of racism directed at the Asian-American community.” The letter is addressed to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. “The best way to stop the spread of coronavirus is to wash your hands, not perpetuate racist stereotypes,” the letter reads. “We ask for your help in spreading this message, to help stem both the public health crisis and the deeply disturbing racism targeting the Asian American community.
Chen’s experience highlights one of the many incidents of violence Asian Americans continue to face as the epidemic spreads throughout the country. While in Chen’s case someone was there to stop the violence from escalating into something physical, that is not always the case. It is important we inform ourselves of factual information and report incidences of misinformation. “This isn’t any time to BLAME others or find some reason to hurt others. Be an upstander,” Chen said in her Facebook post.
Source: http://feeds.dailykosmedia.com/~r/dailykosofficial/~3/6LDOU-7RKu0/–Why-did-you-bring-Corona-to-America-Asian-Americans-detail-Trump-inspired-xenophobic-attacks