Growing Anti-Chinese Sentiment During the Time of the Coronavirus
As the coronavirus spreads, Asians become the target of racism. Photo courtesy of People Matter from Facebook
CHICAGO - Anti-Chinese sentiment has grown significantly since President Donald Trump called COVID-19 the “Chinese Virus.” Locally, public virtual discussions have been held to analyze how the president’s choice words may have intensified a growing racist sentiment nationwide.
People Matter (PM), a community-based nonprofit organization aiming to provide direct service, political education, and issue advocacy in seven neighborhoods in Chicago, held a free online event “Let's Talk about Growing Anti-Chinese Sentiment During the Time of the Coronavirus” on April 1 for people to talk about their experiences and what they’ve heard and seen regarding anti-Chinese sentiment since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
The mission of People Matter is to uplift, unearth, and untether people.
Consuela Hendricks and Angela Lin, the founders of People Matter, hosted this online event. They mentioned that over 650 racist acts against Asian Americans happened over the country and a Singoaporean student in London encountered a violent attack because of a growing anti-Chinese sentiment.
The online conversation lasted an hour. Event organizers welcomed people from different backgrounds and all groups of color who care about the problems to discuss these issues and how people can deal with them in the upcoming months. More than 20 people participated in the conversation.
How are different groups of people interacting with each other?
No group of people has a singular hive mind; however, a sect of people within a group can exhibit hatred against another group.
Hendricks acknowledged that even though other groups of people realize it’s racist for President Trump to call the coronavirus “Chinese Virus” or “Wuhan Virus,” they still don’t want to help Asians or give them support in a variety of forms due to the instance of traumatic history of Asian Americans and African Americans have with each other.
A Facebook user wrote a post stating that she would not give out support to Asian Americans during this anti-Chinese sentiment period as in her mind, Asians are notoriously anti-black.
“I think like a lot of other groups of colors, not only black people of course, are choosing not to participate in defending Asian Americans from the violence is because of historical trauma they have had with Asian Americans,” said Hendricks.
Yet, a few African Americans who participated in the conversation said they felt safer living in Chinatown than in other neighborhoods in Chicago.
Sharad is an African American living in Chicago’s Chinatown neighborhood. He said he felt even safer in Chinatown because people in Chinatown would really follow the policies.
“I do live in Chinatown. I just moved in this early January before everything in the U.S started to be like what it is now, so I’ve seen this transition. But more or so everyone in Chinatown was strictly following these laws. You saw less people on the streets, less cars on the roads, but you would see people on the streets outside of Chinatown acting more careless than those who were at Chinatown,” he said.
William Smith, another African American participating in the conversation, shared a previous conversation he had with a friend about whether Trump calling COVID-10 the “Chinese Virus” should be considered a problem or not.
Smith argued, “When Trump said it’s [the] Chinese virus, to me that’s kind of racist because it’s a time people should be together. All the nations should become together to fight this pandemic.”
What are the concerns and fears Asian people face during the anti-Chinese sentiment?
Already, the racist assumption that people with a Chinese heritage are more likely to be infected with COVID-19 has caused a staggering financial domino effect. Chicago’s Chinatown neighborhood has suffered a 50% decrease of sales since the spread of the coronavirus.
Attendees pointed out several additional issues that might impact Asian people.
One attendee emphasized that there’s a high percentage of Asians who are international students coming to the U.S. to study or work, and might not have the tools to address race based issues.
Alice, a Chinese woman, addressed her fears and anxiety during the conversation by saying more than five times “I’m so scared.” She felt more insecure and unsafe after Donald Trump said “Chinese Virus.” She said she has seen recent news reports that American and Mexican young people discriminated against Asians both verbally and physically.
“I’m so scared. Right now for me, I can’t go to different places far away from Chinatown by myself,” said Alice.
Although Trump has talked to President of China Xi Jinping regarding the coronavirus, Alice said it can’t fix the existing problems as Trump has already influenced an increased racist sentiment.
Alex, another Asian American participating in the conversation, said it’s horrible and racist to call COVID-19 the “Chinese Virus”. They said their fears for personal safety and for the safety of their family. They also added Chinese people would like to seek community support for self-defense.
Andrew Hong, a restorative justice practitioner who works in multiple schools in Chicago, said as one of just a few Asian people working at schools on Chicago’s South Side, he’s used to being seen differently within the neighborhoods, and students being curious about his Asian identity and engaging in intentional conversations about race. Even before the closure of schools when he walked into the classroom, some students reacted differently, giggling, whispering while staring at him.
Andrew Hong addressed that even though most people have been positive towards the issues, only anyone who experiences that can see how that sticks to themselves.
“After that moment, I just became hyper aware. It lingers. I’m sure any person of color who experiences that can see how it sticks with you. When I went to grocery stores, I was ready for everyone to look at me funny,” said Hong.
Hong added that he became hyper aware of not only his difference, but him being seen as a direct threat.
How to alleviate fears and address the issues?
Participants discussed multiple ideas to address and alleviate the anti-Chinese emotion. Ji, a Chinese participant, shared an idea that Asians could make flags and put them in front of a place saying that it’s a safe and welcoming place just as what LGBTQIA+ individuals have done to gather people together for strengthening their power.
“We need to build solidarity between different groups. Hope safety will come from where the power is,” said Sharad.
Sharad pointed out that making flyers or flags are fine to build solidarity, but racist people out there are not going to listen to scientific facts and data in terms of the cases of coronavirus.
Some participants identified the importance of leadership of a country or a city by addressing how big the impact they would make through public announcement. The idea was to organize a call/email or a campaign to the mayor or the governor and ask them to publicly announce renouncing attacks against Asian Americans.
To learn more about this topic here are a list of additional relevant reports:
Call It ‘Coronavirus’ – New York Times
Trump defends calling coronavirus ‘Chinese virus’ — ‘it’s not racist at all’