“China Virus” - The Problem with that Rhetoric

by Justine Santos

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Gain a further understanding of the increased racism towards Asians and its connection with the virus.

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According to the Angus Reid Survey, many Chinese-Canadians and Canadians with East Asian descent feel the increase of racism from the time COVID-19 surfaced, till now. Some people even feel the need to change their routines, to avoid unpleasant encounters in public. Asians all over the world are feeling less accepted, because of the way North American news outlets negatively portray Asian people.

Racism in Canada is not as widely expressed as racism in the United States. Trump’s rhetoric, “China Virus”, influenced individuals to have something to hold against Asians around the world. The nonprofit group, Stop AAIP (Asian American, Pacific Islander) hate, has reported over 2800 incidents of discrimination across America. I can not imagine how many unreported incidents have occurred since the start of the pandemic. Many Asians are facing verbal and physical attacks simply because of their race; many people are worried about the safety of their loved ones and are doing everything they can to prevent discrimination, like choosing to online shop or use curbside pickup instead of going in stores.

Vicha Ratanapakdee was pushed down on his morning walk and died a few days later. Denny Kim was physically and verbally attacked; he was called racial slurs and was left with a black eye. Noel Quintana’s face was slashed with a box cutter. All these people experienced extreme forms of racial discrimination, they were attacked simply because of their appearance, while none of them were of Chinese descent. Noel is Filipino, Kim is Korean and Ratanapakdee was Thai.

These terrifying occurrences should have never happened. Many people think that every Asian has the virus, simply because they are Asian, and that Asians were the only ones who have spread it around the world. All of these incorrect beliefs have led to an increase of hatred against Asians. Unfortunately, these violent, discriminatory events continue to happen. To help, you can sign electronic petitions to spread awareness; https://www.change.org/p/governor-andrew-cuomo-end-hate-crimes-against-asian-americans, https://action.18mr.org/stop-antiasian-violence/, or you can report incidents against AAPI at https://stopaapihate.org/.