The “Chinese Virus”: How Racializing the Coronavirus Could Cause Racialized Violence
We are living in times of uncertainty, as with the coronavirus upending American life came a surge in oppression against people of Asian descent. Looking back at American history, we can all see that racialized violence is not something new: today’s trend is awfully similar to how the African-American communities were targeted as the bearers of AIDS. While we look into how racializing a disease could cause racialized violence, understanding this repetition would hopefully give us an answer to the lack of empathy, despite our lessons from the past.
Nowadays, it should not come as a surprise to see articles, one after another, covering news of hate crimes in different parts of America. Having never set foot on Wuhan’s soil, I also faced the same sticky situation during my Spring break trip to New York City, now the world’s top coronavirus hotspot. Two days before my departure, a Chinese man was stabbed multiple times for wearing a mask in Brooklyn, close to where I was planning to stay. “Some Chinatown businesses say the rise in xenophobia and racism is hurting their bottom line,” Asians now face a double threat as people fear even going outside (Dorn). For me, I was stared at on the subway for wearing a mask and for being Asian. Indeed, compared to others’ experiences, I was very fortunate that nothing went out of hand and was able to come back to the comfort of my apartment in one piece. Still, it was very intense and traumatizing, taking into account how my story is only one amongst hundreds of cases of hate crimes against Asians in the city, and the United States of America.
But what did I mean when comparing our current scenario to the 1980s’ AIDS outbreak? Rereading Treichler’s “AIDS, Homophobia, and Biomedical Discourse: An Epidemic of Signification,” I could not help but notice similar patterns. AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) was an evolving and ever-changing social construct, as “ambiguity, homophobia, stereotyping, confusion, doublethink, them-versus-us, blame-the-victim, wishful thinking” were all present in AIDS biomedical discourse (Treichler). During the height of the outbreak, African-Americans were discriminated against as people believed they were the virus themselves. With the lack of information, some even thought that AIDS could be transmitted through touch. Moreover, under the circumstances of the Cold War, some would also consider AIDS to be a Soviet plot to destroy capitalists, the same as how people now believe the virus to be a bio-weapon from China due to the recent trade wars.
AIDS left a valuable lesson in terms of examples of racialized violence. Comparing that with today’s case of COVID-19, we can examine the repetition and speculate different possible outcomes. As AIDS considered to be one of the worst pandemics in history, another thing that came as a surprise to me is how name variations can reflect and even trigger discrimination. The virus does not tell one race or nationality apart from another, and it does not discriminate, as “medical historians and public health experts — including some in Mr. Trump’s administration — have emphasized that pandemics have no ethnicity and stressed that associating them with an ethnic group can lead to discrimination.” (Rogers et al.) By assigning an origin, the president may trigger a wave of hate against people of Asian descent, but the problems may run deeper than that.
Going back to African-Africans and their AIDS stigmas, we can see how they have never really made a full recovery. As pointed out by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), “Blacks/African Americans account for a higher proportion of new HIV diagnoses and people with HIV, compared to other races/ethnicities” (“HIV and African Americans”). Years of oppression and stigmas have caught up, as the CDC points out that African-Americans alone accounted for 42% of the 37,832 new HIV diagnoses all across America in 2018, an alarming percentage considering how they make up only 13% of the American population. Thanks to various medical advancements, numbers have gone down in terms of new AIDS cases in the past decade. The CDC has also been doing its best, especially through its Let’s Stop HIV Together campaign, which focuses on providing practical and culturally appropriate messages about HIV testing, prevention, and treatment, all while battling existing stigmas. Still, for every 100 blacks with AIDS in 2016, only 61 received some care, which may result in 7,053 deaths the following year. This is due to the high poverty rate, as “the socioeconomic issues associated with poverty — including limited access to high-quality health care, housing, and HIV prevention education — directly and indirectly increase the risk for HIV infection and affect the health of people living with and at risk for HIV” (“HIV and African Americans”). Despite our combined efforts, problems remain very visible; one of them is the conditions of a disease outbreak validating xenophobic or racist comments as comments expressed under the more socially acceptable label of “public health.”
Walking in the park or even the hallway of my own apartment, I could not help but notice how people of different races would try to stay away from me, not just for the sake of social distancing but rather something else. Going online is not any easier, as racist abuse of Asians continues on social media. Asians’ opinions are no longer valid, as people would refer to us as “slanty-eyed” and “ching chong,” urging us to go back to our home country with “memes” of Asians eating bats. Bats, despite popular beliefs, turned out not to be the cause for the pandemic. Still, it was the spread of misinformation and the act of name-calling done by influential household names that have worsened the situation exponentially.
In the week of March 20, Mister President referred to the novel Coronavirus as the “Chinese” virus for two days at the White House coronavirus task force’s daily news briefing. Defending his stance, Trump claimed that, “It’s not racist at all. No, not at all. It comes from China, that’s why. It comes from China. I want to be accurate.” While he may have his points, what our president fails to understand is that his specification is discursively accusing the Chinese by targeting its cultural and geographic origin. He puts a face, a culture, and a country to blame for this pandemic. Yes, the first cases took place in China, but by specifying it the way he does can cause fear, hatred, and violence against Chinese and Asians worldwide. As “other Asian-Americans — with families from Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines, Myanmar and other places — are facing threats, too, lumped together with Chinese-Americans by a bigotry that does not know the difference,” his verbal condemnation of China reinforces a more significant issue many ethnic minorities face in America (Tavernise and Oppel). Similar to African-Americans’ case of AIDS, “white fragility,” a term coined by sociologist Dr. Robin DiAngelo, highlights how Trump’s remarks may not be racist as he has claimed. However, they are still very much, especially “in the sense that they indirectly remind Chinese and other ethnic minorities that the White majority gets to decide what is or isn’t racist” (Louie).
So what can we really do as an individual to tackle these problems of COVID-19 and xenophobia? Firstly, we have to acknowledge that the comments come from Trump, “who comes from a race that can make that blanket decision based on institutional power, privilege, and protection” (Louie). Not everyone has these privileges, so it is up to every one of us to be critical and to stand up to the destructive institutional powers that have been keeping White Americans in a place of racial advantage against their fellow minority Americans. Only by doing so can we truly find the answer to the lack of empathy. As long as this system exists, there will be no real sense of understanding, nor will there be any sense of unity as a country and as human beings, altogether fighting our shared enemy of COVID-19.
We are living in times of uncertainty and times of change. Writing this, I am looking for no one’s sympathy; instead, I am merely trying to show you what you might have missed. As we each play our role by staying inside and practice social distancing, I hope everyone will be in their right mind and will see the hidden, damaging patterns we have been following for centuries, and will soon make changes for the better.
Works Cited
“HIV and African Americans.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 30 Jan. 2020, https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/group/racialethnic/africanamericans/index.html.
Dorn, Sara. “NYC Human Rights Commission Probing Reports of Coronavirus-Related Racism.” New York Post, New York Post, 14 Mar. 2020, www.nypost.com/2020/03/14/nyc-human-rights-commission-probing-reports-of-coronavirus-related-racism/.
Louie, Sam. “Racializing the Coronavirus.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 18 Mar. 2020, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/minority-report/202003/racializing-the-coronavirus.
Rogers, Katie, et al. “Trump Defends Using ‘Chinese Virus’ Label, Ignoring Growing Criticism.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 18 Mar. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/us/politics/china-virus.html.
Tavernise, Sabrina, and Richard A. Oppel. “Spit On, Yelled At, Attacked: Chinese-Americans Fear for Their Safety.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 23 Mar. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/03/23/us/chinese-coronavirus-racist-attacks.html.
Treichler, Paula A. “AIDS, Homophobia, and Biomedical Discourse: An Epidemic of Signification.” October, vol. 43, MIT Press, Dec. 1987, pp. 31–70, doi:10.2307/3397564.
