With the growth of the Coronavirus originating in Wuhan, China, people worldwide are going into a panic of contracting the illness. There have been safety precautions made in various countries to prevent the virus from spreading, and people have been using their own means to keep themselves healthy. Yet, there has been racism growing against Asians amidst this Corona outbreak. 

The virus has spread to surrounding Asian countries the fastest, but it seems to be hard for those in America and Europe to grasp that not all people who are Asian have traveled there nor do they automatically contract the virus. Various hate crimes and racist actions have occurred due to their ignorance and blatant racist thinking.

NPR asked it’s listeners to send in any racist occurrences they’ve had, and public transportation is where they have seen the worst of it. People will use their shirts as masks, turn away from individuals, and even tell Asian passengers they don’t want to get sick. 

Sales in various Chinatowns across the country have been plummeting in fear of the virus, which has hurt the businesses. A small, family-owned Chinese restaurant, Lucky Way Kitchen, had lost customers and sent out a text message stating, “Our food is 100% safe! 2020 has had a rough start & we hope you’d choose facts over fear and support our small business in this difficult time”. Just because a restaurant is Chinese doesn’t mean that the virus is there. The fact that they had to send out a message reminding people that no one is infected is sad. 

The New York Post released a statement regarding how the virus has reached Manhattan, and they utilized a photo of an Asian man with a mask on. The person infected wasn’t a man, it was a woman in her 30s who had been confined in her home. Hate crimes have been happening within America and Europe ranging from something as small as covering faces around Asian people or full-on attacking Asian people on the streets.

An incident occurred in London where a Singaporean man was attacked and the attacker said, “I don’t want your coronavirus in my country.” First of all, this individual is Singaporean, not Chinese nor from Wuhan, and even if he was, the Coronavirus isn’t specifically an Asian disease. Second of all, the man was terribly injured with a black eye and even received some stitches near his left eye.

This type of racist thinking has infected the American and European people more than the virus itself. It is insane how people can wrongly associate an illness to a person just because of how they look or what their ethnicity is. Though people may claim it isn’t racially driven, (on NPR one person claimed someone told them “I’m not racist, I just don’t want to get sick) it clearly is. They aren’t covering their faces near Hispanic people or staying away from white-owned shops; it is just Asian shops. 

People are allowed to be cautious; health is always first, but there is no need for someone to beat another person just for the fact that they are Asian. People can prevent themselves from contracting the disease without being racist. 

Stay healthy and don’t use COVID-19 as an excuse to be racist.