Not only is the virus spreading, but xenophobia against Asian communities is as well. Having heard of many atrocious attacks against Asian elders, community members and businesses does not sit well with me at all. From an assault against an elder Thai man in San Francisco, to the head of a tech company harassing an Asian-American family at a restaurant, and more recently and locally, someone vandalizing a beloved community ramen shop with racist messaging, xenophobia must be addressed and resolved as quickly as possible. I am now aware that I should have spoken out against these horrific hate crime trends plaguing the United States earlier, and sorry that I did not speak out as earlier as I should have — but enough is enough.
Historical Context
As a part of the idea of the Manifest Destiny engrained by the Americans’ minds during the nineteenth-century, the expansion of the country came along with the oppression of minority groups and uncovered trending developments like the California Gold Rush.
From what I understood from U.S. History, many white Americans settled in California to seek out gold for the purpose of increasing their wealth. Then sometime in the 1850s is when Chinese immigrants arrived at the United States from the West and mostly settled into modern-day California — hence, the prominence of Chinatowns in San Francisco, for example.
Of course, the Chinese immigrants also wanted a fair share of the gold found in California, so they did take part of the Gold Rush along with the Anglo-Americans. Interestingly enough, they often disguised their newfound gold through clever means, such as molding their gold into various household objects, which was something that I thought was interesting when I learned about it in school.
However, the Anglo-Americans did not think that they benefited from foreign competition for the search of gold, as well as the economy in general, so they decided to impose laws that were against Chinese immigrants, such as the Foreign Miners’ Act of 1852 and infamously the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
The Chinese Exclusion Act was a Congress-sanctioned law that barred Chinese immigrants from settling into the country. It would be considered as one of the prime examples of sinophobia that this country has ever exhibited through its legislature. Due to the passage of this act, there had been many racist depictions of the Chinese immigrants through various political cartoons — including an ad for a laundry product that depicts Uncle Sam kicking out the immigrants (content warning: depictions of sinophobia).
Ever since then, xenophobia had expanded from Chinese-Americans to Asian-Americans as a whole. From the internment camps against the Japanese-Americans all the way to the former U.S. president referring to COVID-19 as the “kung flu”, xenophobia isn’t a brand new phenomenon that the world has seen lately.
What We Know Today
The initial cases of COVID-19 was reported to have been in Wuhan, China in December of 2019; that seems to be a fact. However, there should not be an excuse to shame and harass Asian communities for something that they do have have control over, nor for something that they weren’t even involved in. It’s really disappointing to see that poorly educated people assume that someone may carry the virus mainly because of their race. It’s really disappointing to see the inexcusable behavior exhibited towards many Asian communities to an extent that they feel unsafe. And unfortunately, that is an effect of what the pandemic brought to the world along some bigotry and ignorance.
At some point during the earlier stages of the pandemic, former U.S. president Donald Trump referred to the disease as the “kung flu” and the “Chinese virus”. He failed to recognize how unprofessional and racist these names were. He associated a martial arts practice, in which I’m sure not every person of Asian descent practices, to a virus that emerged in a geographical location where that said martial arts practice originated; that rhetorical effect intensified the idea that the Chinese people were responsible for the pandemic happening. That was quite embarrassing for a (now former) president to associate a cultural aspect and use it to villianize a group of people; when I first heard of that, the nickname given for COVID-19 felt really cringy and not funny at all. Speaking of naming viruses, there are some criteria being made by various health agencies that try to not name a virus, or variant, based off of a geographical location that it originated from as to not stigmatize the community from the place of origin.
What Should I Do To Help?
I simply suggest that you wake up and start becoming aware of this atrocity of such an awful trend. I have provided some data below:
Also, I challenge you, the reader, to speak out and call out each instance of xenophobia against AAPI. Protest if you have to (albeit safely; you are not obligated to tell any police shit upon your arrest if it comes to that and wear a mask). Support the AAPI elderly — protect them to the best of your abilities. Support AAPI businesses; let them know that you care for them. And most importantly, denounce every instance of Anti-Asian American and Pacific Islander harassment and assault.
Content Warning: racist graffiti
On a personal note: there had been an instance of a xenophobic incident against a community ramen shop in San Antonio. Whenever I heard about this, I was appalled. I was extremely disappointed that someone decided to vandalize a beloved ramen shop where the head chef simply cared about the health and safety of his community and himself. This is not okay. This is totally unacceptable. You don’t write these ugly, abhorrent, and degrading comments on a small, locally-owned business; you don’t write these types of comments at all to anybody for that matter. I hope that whoever did such an atrocity will be held accountable for their actions. Also, given that this happened near the UTSA Main Campus, if this act of hatred was done by some student(s), then I call on the school officials to discipline them to the fullest extent as this type of behavior does not uphold the core values of a Roadrunner.
Otherwise, please go out and support Noodle Tree on 7114 UTSA Blvd. if you happen to be around the San Antonio area. They are open for Thursday through Sunday. If you want to support, you have to either make a reservation ahead of time to dine in, or you could also have the option to order online for curbside pickup. Anyways, show them some love and respect. Personally, I’ve always enjoyed the Hakata Ramen when I first came here about two years ago.
Update 3/17/21: Atlanta Salon Shootings
If the original post did not wake you up enough, perhaps the tragic acts of terrorism should. When I woke up early in the morning and learned that last night’s shootings were racially motivated, I was a bit mortified to hear that.
Eight people died as a result of a hatred from a 21 year old white terrorist*. Six of the victims were of Asian descent and females.
*don’t let mainstream media fool you by how they might frame these incidents. this is terrorism.
Honestly, I am not sure what to say, but this is truly awful and it makes me concerned for the safety and wellbeing of other AAPI businesses, groups, and individuals. We need to learn how to protect these people from danger. I am truly concerned about their safety. We need to do better than this.
I really hope for the victims’ families to heal from these horrific incidents. My thoughts and prayers are with them.
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