52
FEB 21, 2020
Coronophobia Spread of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) does not excuse increased racist behaviors, anti-Chinese sentiment KAREN ZHANG COLUMN
A
s an introvert, I have always However, restaurants in South been aware of the times Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and many when I have cleared my other nations have already closed their throat in a silent room or coughed doors to Chinese customers. French more than two times in a single class and Italian newspapers ran stories period. But now, as a person of Chiwith racist headlines such as “Yellow nese descent, I have been even Alert” and “Yellow Peril.” Demore aware of every sneeze, spite little scientific evidence cleared throat or cough in that restricting travel stops a public setting. the spread of a novel virus, While here at this President Donald Trump school, jokes aimed has banned foriegn at Chinese students nationals who have about COVID-19 traveled to China have seemed to in the last 14 days be mainly harmfrom reentering less, outside of the United States, these halls, it is not directly opposing only the virus that the World Health is spreading: along Organization with the virus, xe(WHO), which dis#GOAVSGO nophobic and anticourages travel and Chinese sentiment has trade bans, claiming quickly spread throughout the world. they make it harder to help affected The escalating global health crisis nations respond to such outbreaks. has claimed more than 1,370 lives and The actions of politicians, the infected close to 52,000 people worldcomments on social media that say wide*. As authorities seek to contain “keep the #Chinese in a zoo” and the virus, they are trying to balance the the news and media outlets that need for warnings against the risk of misrepresent the virus as a whole— creating global panic. these are all just reminders to me
time flies when you’re having fun
zzz
WENDY ZHU GRAPHIC PERSPECTIVE
by the numbers*
4.9% is the fatality rate of COVID-19 in Wuhan
250
THOUSAND kits were shipped by the WHO to 159 laboratories to speed up diagnoses
1,370 people have been reported dead from the coronavirus
NY TIMES, WORLDOMETERS SOURCE
7:45?? I’M GOING TO BE LATE FOR SCHOOL!!
that I am still a foreigner in the continent in which I was born and raised. Now, people are weaponizing the virus and using it as an excuse to be openly racist, enforcing ageold xenophobic attitudes and stereotypes. In 2009, when the H1N1, or swine flu, broke out from the United States, no one declared a type of travel ban against American citizens or called the virus the “white virus.” No one attacked Caucasian influencers on social media or scrambled away from every single white person they saw. At the end of the day, treating someone differently by their race or acting as if all Asians have the coronavirus is the same thing: racist. It is understandable to be alarmed by the novel coronavirus because of all the uncertainty that surrounds it, but no amount of fear can justify prejudice and discrimination against people of Asian descent. h *These numbers were found on press deadline, Feb. 13, 2020 The views in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of the HiLite staff. Reach Karen Zhang at kzhang@hilite.org.
oh wait...
