The Elephant in the Room: Discrimination Against Asian Americans in the Age of COVID-19
The majority of us never imagined that we would live through a global pandemic, and the profound effects the coronavirus has had on everyday life, from work to school to social interaction, would have been completely unthinkable less than a month ago. At this point, there is no end in sight to the new, dangerous reality we are living in, and all of that uncertainty leads to a great deal of anxiety and fear.
Fear is the root of all hate, and, unfortunately, the fear around the coronavirus has given rise to new levels of hate specifically directed at one group: Asian Americans. It is the elephant in the room, the one thing no one wants to discuss. Everyone knows that the virus that causes COVID-19 originated in China, in the city of Wuhan. And even though individuals of Chinese descent are no more likely to be carrying the virus than people of other races and ethnicities (and in fact, the country with the greatest number of coronavirus cases and the least contained spread is now actually the United States), multiple news outlets have reported that instances of hateful speech and racially motivated violence against Asian people have increased dramatically over the past few weeks. This vitriol is not just reserved for Chinese Americans, but also Korean Americans, Japanese Americans, Vietnamese Americans, and anyone who appears East Asian.
When any group of people is experiencing an uptick in discrimination, it is important to prioritize their needs in offering support. ERG’s, are a great way to provide this support to your company’s Asian employees. These groups bring employees of different backgrounds and identities together in a space to build community and share resources. If you set up an ERG specifically for Asian colleagues at your company, they will be able to find solidarity with each other in these tough times (and don’t worry, ERG’s are hosted online, so it will be solidarity in compliance with social distancing recommendations!). ERG’s are also an excellent way for your company’s leadership to communicate with Asian employees and offer them resources, such as mental health counseling or the appropriate procedures for reporting a hate crime to law enforcement.
Additionally, ERG’s can go beyond providing support to your Asian employees. They are a great way to educate the rest of your workforce about the difficulties Asian Americans are facing right now, and the importance of treating the coronavirus as the neutral disease that it is and not something that is somehow linked to Asian people. For some marginalized groups, this topic should be fairly familiar and easy to grasp. An ERG for LGBTQ employees, for example, would be a great place to start the conversation around the stigma surrounding HIV and AIDS, and how even today there are still some people who associate members of the LGBTQ community with that disease. A similar conversation could be had within Black and African American ERG’s about the Ebola virus, and with ERG’s for Middle Eastern employees about MERS, also known as Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome. But even if a particular employee group does not have a personal connection with disease-related discrimination, ERG’s can be a space to share scientific fact and counter misinformation. All Americans would benefit from knowing that the World Health Organization has counseled scientists and doctors to move away from labeling diseases based on their initial outbreak location, and that it is inappropriate to speak of a “Chinese virus” or a “Wuhan virus,” despite what some world leaders may be role-modeling.
Teleskope’s ERG Management platform, Affinities, is the best way to get your ERGs online and head off Asian coronavirus related discrimination before it it even starts.
