Coronavirus doesn't discriminate, so neither should you

Three and a half years ago when the Brexit referendum was announced, I was told to ‘f**k off back to my country’ by a drunken man, despite being born here and having lived in the UK all my life.

On Brexit eve eve, another man sat down next to me on the Tube and immediately shot back up to move to another seat whilst muttering, ‘Errr… Not sitting next to coronavirus.’

He said it under his breath, but loud enough for me to hear.

As I write this on the day that Britain leaves EU, it’s as if I’ve come full circle where fear and xenophobia are still prevalent as ever and not much has changed in those last three years of turmoil. 

As of yesterday, the new coronavirus has officially been declared as a global health emergency by the World Health Organisation. Today, there have been two confirmed cases in the UK. The current death toll in China stands at 213, with almost 10,000 confirmed cases of infections nationally.

People are dying from this deadly virus and many are on lock-down, but some other side-effects are the spike in hysteria, panic and racism. The spreading of xenophobic reactions, false information and even conspiracy theories online, has whipped up a fearmongering and discrimination frenzy that’s bringing out the worst in people.

We’ve seen a Japanese store owner trying to ban Chinese customers by posting ‘no Chinese allowed’ signs outside his store, the Evening Standard’s editor, George Osborne, tweet his newspaper’s cartoon of a rat wearing a face mask to supposedly commemorate the lunar new year, and downright offensive ‘jokes’ on a Subreddit called CoronavirusMemes. Coronavirus has become an anti-East Asian bashing fest. 

The coronavirus isn’t the only illness that’s spreading, the sickness of bigotry and hate is just as deadly.

I’m stunned at how many people are laughing at a country in crisis and the truly racist responses the coverage of the coronavirus has triggered. Whether it’s French regional newspaper Le Courrier Picard’s use of ‘Yellow Alert’ front page headline, along with a photograph of a Chinese woman wearing a mask, or the Herald Sun’s front page headline ‘Chinese Virus Pandamonium’, in which the word ‘panda’ is highlighted. A change.org petition calling for the Australian newspaper to apologise has now gathered 50,000 signatures.

Underneath the shock value and scaremongering headlines, the ignorance and cultural bias hasn’t been that surprising to me at all. I know these stereotypes all too well.

These ignorant comments and rude stereotypes are ones that people keep perpetuating time and time again. At the time of my incident, when the man moved away from me, I didn’t and couldn’t say anything. Part taken aback and part playing into my East Asian tropes of sticking my head down and not wanting to cause any trouble. In hindsight, I probably should’ve coughed on him, but I’m tired of staying quiet.

There’s been a long history of racism during disease outbreaks. Take the Ebola epidemics in 2014 and 2019, where in the US, a high school football player faced chants of ‘Ebola’ by the rival team because his parents were in Guinea, one of the countries affected by the virus. And during the 2003 SARS outbreak, it was commonly reported that Chinese people face harassment in public places and children were being bullied in schools. 

What happened back then is happening again now. Fear and blame are counterproductive and in some cases dangerous, but especially so in any disease outbreak.

The more stigmatised and isolated a particular racial group feels, the more reluctant people in that group may be to seek medical care and that only helps propagate the disease.

It’s worth remembering that us East Asians are humans, too. We’re all right here with you, in the same boat worrying about this contagious new disease. 

Coronavirus doesn’t give you a free pass to be rude and openly racist to others. Please have some empathy and consideration. 

The coronavirus isn’t the only illness that’s spreading, the sickness of bigotry and hate is just as deadly.