Coronavirus: Racism and Xenophobia Increase

What has happened?

• Global Panic – Creating Fear and Xenophobia against Asians and Chinese Food
• Asians are facing prejudice in Social Media/Daily Life
• Racist jokes (Coughing whenever an asian is present, Assumptions, Avoidance, e.t.c)
• Harassment in public/Social Media
• Negative Tweets/False Information/People who don’t know what they are talking about/Fools Online
• Spread of Fake News: “Coronavirus is a bioweapon!”
• “Yellow Peril” a very traumatic experience for the Chinese was brought up in a French News Article

“A couple of people at an East London school I work in have asked me why Chinese people eat weird food when they know it causes viruses,” – A Malaysian-Chinese social worker

Why should we care?

• Prejudice/Xenophobia isn’t something we can ignore
• Similar event in the past: Ebola
• We can’t have a “All Asians have Coronavirus” ideology
• Fear, News Articles and Shutdown of Borders are encouraging fear of physical contact with Asians

Bias of Source

CNN – Unbiased and Factual

Twitter – Biased without Facts

Sources

• Yeung, J. (n.d.). As the coronavirus spreads, fear is fueling racism and
       xenophobia. Retrieved February 2, 2020, from CNN website:
       https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/31/asia/wuhan-coronavirus-racism-fear-intl-hnk/
       index.html

• Burhan. (n.d.). I can’t f*cking believe it. Because of some folks in China who
       eat weird sh*t like bats, rats, and snakes, the entire world is about to
       suffer a plague. Like, is it not bad enough that your country tortures
       Uyghurs… F*ck. Retrieved February 2, 2020, from Twitter website:
       https://twitter.com/burhan_plays/status/1220344748533108739

• Chengwang, L. (n.d.). I’m Chinese， but I’m not a virus I know everyone is
       afraid of the virus, but no projudice, plz. #imnotavirus. Retrieved
       February 2, 2020, from Twitter website: https://twitter.com/
       ChengwangL?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E12221146358783672
       32&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2020%2F01%2F31%2Fasia%2Fwuhan-coronavirus-
       racism-fear-intl-hnk%2Findex.html

Images

• Burhan. (n.d.). I can’t f*cking believe it. Because of some folks in China who eat weird sh*t like bats, rats, and snakes, the entire world is about to suffer a plague. Like, is it not bad enough that your country tortures  Uyghurs… F*ck. [Photograph]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/ burhan_plays/status/1220344748533108739

• Chengwang, L. (2020, February 1). I’m Chinese, but I’m not a virus I know everyone is afraid of the virus, but no projudice, plz. #imnotavirus [Photograph]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/ChengwangL?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1222114635878367232&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2020%2F01%2F31%2Fasia%2Fwuhan-coronavirus-racism-fear-intl-hnk%2Findex.html