Show Compassion NOT Hate!                                     

Community: Asian Community.

Issue: The recent surge in the Anti-Asian hate crimes due to covid-19.

Research Question: Why are Asian people who have no direct relation to Covid-19 being targeted in society with racist remarks, discrimination, stereotypes, and physical attacks.

Thesis: Due to the pandemic affecting a wide variety of people, the fear of contracting covid-19 has made people weak in showing compassion, instead, people are throwing prejudice to Asians and Asian-Americans, and this has caused a rise in Anti-Asian hate crimes.

 

Research Proposal By:

Rafsan Chowdhury

 

The Main Issue or Problem:

In the United States, and around the world Coronavirus has made the lives of many people difficult and in some cases, the word “difficult” doesn’t do the case justice. But imagine what it must be like to walk the streets of your own city and be given remarks, looks, or run into physical altercations because people blame you for the cause of the pandemic. “From Los Angeles to New York and in between, people are being assaulted by fellow Americans simply because they are Asian.”(Ono, 2020) People attack you because they think that you have something to do with it or the spread of it- all because you look Asian and what the virus is being called. According to an abc7 news article called FACEism: How COVID-19 is resurfacing US history of racism against Asian Americans, Trump decided to deliberately call the Coronavirus, the “China Virus”, the “Kung Flu”, the “Chinese Flu” and the “Wuhan Virus”. We have known for a while now Trump is just a bigot in disguise and his treatment of women isn’t that great either. In his speech, he deliberately decided to cross “corona” and replace it with “Chinese”. Asian-Americans and Asian Immigrants are not to blame, yet many people are spreading hate across the country and choosing to blame them for the crisis.

 

Why is the Issue Compelling to You?

The Issue became compelling to me after reading an article that was supposed to aid us in one of our class fish-bowl discussions. I had known that the Coronavirus had sparked a new wave of Anti-Asian sentiment in the U.S. and even around the world, where people have been attacked for looking Asian or for even just wearing a mask. Cathy Park from The NYTimes was especially shocked to hear the resurgence of the word, “Chink”. Besides racist individuals, “bottom feeder” (Hong, 2020) as Cathy called them, using it on the internet. The word and its usage were super outdated. But now Cathy is hearing it over social media, from news feeds, and in society. Americans were hurling the slur so openly and with such raw emotions that Cathy was just appalled. Having read this article the word “chink” I feel like as always ben underlying in American Society and with Trump denoting the Corona-Virus as the “Wuhan Virus” or the “Chinese Virus” literally put a target on the backs of Chinese, Chinese American and just any Asian races in the U.S. One would think about their Asian republican supporters but we have all known for a while now that Trump is just a bigot. “After President Trump called Covid-19 the “Chinese virus” in March, the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council said more than 650 incidents of discrimination directed against Asian-Americans were reported to a website it helps maintain in one week alone.”(Hong, 2020) This pandemic has made people scared to leave their houses for the fear of not the virus itself but of hate crimes still persisting.

 

Intended Audience:

My intended audiences are both males and females, adults, and youths that are misguided in their views of Asians and Asian-Americans. People who are blinded by their prejudice towards Asians or their fear of Covid which has caused them to have a lapse in judgment. I know that due to people not knowing enough about the virus or about Asian culture and with Trump labeling it in a way that makes it look like the Chinese were to blame for it. Those ignorant people are part of the problem in American Society, as they are also the ones who are quick to blame others for their own suffering/situation. Jilleen Liao in a TIME interview said, “Scapegoating is both a timeless and universal tool, so we shouldn’t be surprised COVID-19 racism is coinciding with an election year,” she says. “Especially as marginalized people, we can’t be afraid to speak out about our experiences. I believe community building starts with relationship building—however messy or imperfect that process might look. The Black Lives Matter movement continues to show us a new world is possible.”(kambhampaty, 2020) I also agree people shouldn’t have to live in fear and even as a marginalized group of people, Asians and Asian-Americans need to speak up. Like any other American, Asians and Asian-Americans have the right to have a sense of safety when they are in public. 

 

Advocacy Plan: 

My Advocacy plan is to bring more awareness to the issue we need to start at the root and that is first with the Adults. We need to educate the ignorant adults who have those inner biases towards certain cultural backgrounds. The Black Lives Matter movement has shown us that it is possible for change and the attention the movement has brought to the issue has made the lives of African-American people a lot safer. Before when a black man would be restrained or used force on, most people would be bystanders and just watch the scene unfold in front of them. Now I see it all the time, there are people who are going against their own safety to even scream at the cops if they r doing something wrong, like excessive use of force. People are tired of the same wrong things that certain cops have been doing that they call doing their job. Their job is to protect citizens and they should use the appropriate force to do that. Power comes with responsibility and doing more evil is not going to help anyone. We need to be first given a speech by the U.S. government that clearly mentions that Asian-Americans and the virus have no connection, and fix the mistake Trump has caused for Asian-Americans by putting a target on their backs and calling the virus, “Chinese Virus”. Sure the virus had originated from China, but the Asian people back home, who we have known for a while now, our friends and fellow Americans or immigrants don’t deserve to be treated as the main cause of it or the root of the problem. They don’t have anything to do with it. They are just as scared of the whole issue as well. This brings me to the next part of my plan and that has to do with educating our youths. We know that kids can be edgy with their humor and people need to know the boundaries of when it’s a joke and when it actually can hurt someone. I propose that due to quarantine that we hold a zoom call once every month to go over with students the importance to see that racism is not the norm and we should each stand up for each other if we see someone is being mistreated, etc. Words can be hurtful and the jokes other kids make can have a negative impact on the growth of other youth.

 

Annotated Bibliography:

Hong, C. (2020, April 12). The Slur I Never Expected to Hear in 2020. Retrieved November/December,2020,from:https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/magazine/asian-american-discrimination-coronavirus.html

This source will help show that this new surge of racism is a prevalent issue in our society. Cathy Hong, the writer of this article at the beginning was scared for her family and friends back in Korea and others assured her that they don’t go outside and they should be able to go through this crisis. As she started reading more about what was happening around the world, she realized the increase in number of Anti-Asian hate crimes and harassment due to Covid-19 had increased. And it soon occurred to her that she like she was constantly being watched and going for a stroll or a grocery run outside didn’t feel the same as before. It felt a lot more unsafe. Hong said, “ I never would have thought that the word “Chink” would have a resurgence in 2020. The word was supposed to be as outdated as those sinister little Chinamen saltshakers I saw in thrift shops.” Covid brought along with it a new virus, that being hate. More hate was being spread and people are hurling slurs like “chink” without any regard for their fellow Asian-Americans. Cathy says, “Like many New Yorkers, I was jaywalking and nearly walked into a Latino deliveryman whizzing by on his bicycle. “Chinese bitch!” he shouted as he rode by. I wasn’t filled with hot rage or hurt that cut me to the bone. I was just rattled and then sad.”(Hong, 2020) You sometimes feel hopeless when you hear derogatory words like that. Yelling at them won’t do much to help solve the issue. Larger awareness needs to be brought to the issue. If we had government intervention, that would be the best method, along with media coverage to help alleviate this issue a bit.

 

Kambhampaty, A., & Sakaguchi, H. (2020, June 25). Asian Americans Share Experiences of Racism During COVID-19. Retrieved November/December 2020, from https://time.com/5858649/racism-coronavirus/

This article tells us that diseases and outbreaks have been used to rationalize xenophobia in multiple cultures on multiple occurrences in our history. The racist belief that Asians carry disease goes back centuries. With Trump calling it the “Chinese Virus” (Kambhampaty, 2020) has helped normalize “Anti-Asian xenophobia, stoking public hysteria and racist attacks.”(Kambhampaty, 2020) Anyone who looks somewhat Asian or if they are wearing a mask and they are also Asian are in danger and can be a victim. “Racist aggressors don’t distinguish between different ethnic subgroups—anyone who is Asian or perceived to be Asian at all can be a victim. Even wearing a face mask, an act associated with Asians before it was recommended in the U.S., could be enough to provoke an attack.” Since March, STOP APPI HAT, an incident reporting-system has received over 1,800 Asian hate crime reports across the U.S., with the number rising even now. Even people like Justin Tsui in an interview from Times have been a victim. Justin has worked as a nurse and that still did not stop someone from spitting on him, following him, and just harassing him.  

Helier Cheung & Zhaoyin Feng & Boer Deng. (2020, May 27). Coronavirus: What attacks on Asians reveal about American identity. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52714804

This article helps to show that ordinary Asian-Americans or immigrants who are just like any other ordinary American have been harassed or called a “chink” since this pandemic has started. Tracy Wen Liu says she didn’t think she stood out a lot before the pandemic, but now she feels as if she has a target on her back. Recently her friend was pushed and yelled at until she was told to leave a grocery store, for her own safety. All because she was Asian and wore a mask. In states including New York, California, and Texas, East Asians have been spat on, punched, or kicked – and in one case even stabbed. Tracy says the pandemic has made her realize that “I am Asian, and because of how I look like or where I was born, I could never become one of them.”(Cheung and Deng, 2020) People are feeling scared and not of the virus, but of each other. This pandemic has made many feel more paranoid, Asian people are scared to talk about certain parts of NYC and other areas around their homes. They feel the blame all around them for something that is out of their power and something that isn’t their fault, AT ALL.

Covid-19 Fueling Anti-Asian Racism and Xenophobia Worldwide. (2020, October 28). Retrieved from: https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/05/12/covid-19-fueling-anti-asian-racism-and-xenophobia-worldwide

I will be using this article to show that governments around the world need to advocate to stop racist and xenophobic violence and discrimination because of Covid-19. This article states that since the start of the pandemic, Asian and people of Asian descent have been the target of derogatory language, from the media, on social media, and even our own president. When Trump called the Virus the “Chinese Virus” and when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s used the term “Wuhan virus”, it may have encouraged the use of hate speech in the US. A governor from Italy said they would be better at handling the virus since they pay more attention to hygiene and they “don’t eat mice”. Incidents like these have been sparking all over the world and we need the government’s support to help alleviate this issue.