INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY-SOC 100

Racism Amidst Corona Virus

Racism Amidst Corona Virus: The treatment of Asians and Asian Americans

Covid-19 pandemic was accompanied by devastating impacts of intensified racism at different levels including individual, cultural and structural. Macionis (2016) defines racism as socially constructed beliefs held by individuals that consider themselves important than others. In the era of Covid-19 pandemic, many Asian Americans, ethnic businesses and cultural heritages were ridiculed, insulted and defamed. Borja et al., (2020) points out that the Trump administration used various terms such as the “Chinese virus” and the “Wuhan virus” in reference to Covid-19 hence making Asian Americans scapegoats and further spiking hate incidents. While defining the scapegoat theory, Macionis (2016) highlights that the victims end up being prejudiced hence suffering the risk of frustration. For instance, Kungfu, which happens to be a martial arts among Asians was referred as “Kung flu” while individual Asians were nicknamed “bat eaters.” Therefore, despite their actual ethnic backgrounds most Southeast and East Asians were viewed as “Chinese” and contagious racial objects hence revealing the presence of both cultural and individual racism amidst Covid-19.

Racialization of pandemics is not a new debate as Asian groups have been discriminated before following the outbreak of other diseases such as Ebola and such racialization ends up adversely and disproportionately affecting such individuals across the globe. Person et al., (2004) concurs that during the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003, there was discrimination and stigmatization of Asian Americans. Consequently, this causes vicarious suffering among Asian American families that become targets of such racist acts. For instance, a research conducted by Cheah et al., (2020) reveals that most Chinese American families who experienced racism amidst Covid-19 developed a poorer mental health. Such factors could contribute to the suicidal ideation due to depressive symptoms and elevated generalized anxiety among the Asians community. It became a societal issue that also affected other communities who were adopted in the dominant culture through assimilation.

Another striking effect of racism amidst Covid-19 pandemic is that it caused an insidious type of discrimination whereby the concerns of Asian Americans were considered invisible. According to Sue et al., (2009), racism amidst Covid-19 is associated with longstanding societal stereotypes as Asian Americans are considered to be perpetual foreigners. Macionis (2016) also concurs that such stereotypes could result to invisibility of the affected group and in this case, the invisibility of Asian Americans led to ignorance of their needs during Covid-19 pandemic as they were considered not to be “real” Americans. For instance, the American government failed to give Asian immigrant communities linguistically accessible information and Covid-19 testing (Della Cava, 2020). As a matter of fact, such systemic racism was combined with different forces of stratification such as those of classism in order to exacerbate intersectional oppression and discrimination to vulnerable Asian communities and subgroups that are not under the minority stereotype model. Personally, I witnessed my Asian colleagues go through increased discrimination and stigmatization during Covid-19 pandemic as most were blamed for causing the outbreak of the Corona virus and taking job opportunities that belong to “real” Americans. Worse still, some individuals practiced this discrimination indirectly as they distanced themselves from daily conversations and networking with Asian Americans even during class activities.

Conclusively, the rising incidences of racism especially among Asians and Asian Americans calls for the government to consider both pre and post-pandemic experiences to avoid increased susceptibility towards different perceptions and feelings such as those of shame with regards to an individual’s ethnicity or race. It is evident that Covid-19 scapegoating could force people to internalize different racist beliefs regarding an individual’s ethnic or racial group and discrimination of such ethnic groups such as Chinese immigrants by associating them with the profile of “Chinese Virus.” Additionally, Covid-19 racism should be given critical consciousness in order to unite diverse Asian ethnicities and promoting solidarity among Asian Americans as a way of harnessing resilience and stimulate collective action that will enable such affected groups to cope with racial bigotry amidst such pandemics. Therefore, uniting our society requires eliminating both cultural and individual racism.

References

Borja, M., Jeung, R., Horse, A. Y., Gibson, J., Gowing, S., Lin, N., … & Power, E. (2020). Anti-Chinese rhetoric tied to racism against Asian Americans stop AAPI hate report. Asian Pacific Policy & Planning Council.[Google Scholar].

Cheah, C. S., Wang, C., Ren, H., Zong, X., Cho, H. S., & Xue, X. (2020). COVID-19 racism and mental health in Chinese American families. Pediatrics, 146(5).

Della Cava, M. (2020). Asian Americans in San Francisco are dying at alarming rates from COVID-19: Racism is to blame. USA TODAY.

Macionis, J. J. (2016). Society: the basics. 15th Edition. Pearson. REVEL Edition

Person, B., Sy, F., Holton, K., Govert, B., & Liang, A. (2004). the NCID. SARS Community Outreach Team (listed in alphabetical order) Garza B, Gould D, Hickson M, McDonald M, Meijer C, Smith J, Veto L, Williams W, Zauderer L. National Center for Inectious diseases/SARS community outreach team. Fear and stigma: the epidemic within the SARS outbreak. Emerg Infect Dis, 10(2), 358-363.

Sue, D. W., Bucceri, J., Lin, A. I., Nadal, K. L., & Torino, G. C. (2009). Racial microaggressions and the Asian American experience.