\u201cThe Chinese brought here with them and successfully maintained and perpetuated the grossest habits of bestiality practiced by the human race [gambling, opium, and prostitution]\u2026 [They] have inoculated our youth not only with the virus of immorality in its most hideous form, but have through the same sources physically poisoned the blood of thousands by the inoculation with diseases the most frightful that the flesh is heir to, and furnishing posterity with a line of scrofulous and leprous victims that might better never have been born than to curse themselves and mankind at large with their contagious presence.\u201d <\/p>(Chase 11)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Additionally, pictured below is a news article from the San Francisco Call that accurately depicts the view of Chinatown during this fearful era. Asian people are seen as monkeys, the illness itself being the bug-like figures being pulled off the Chinese writing and the evident fear of every white person pictured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n San Francisco Call, Volume 87, Number 103, 13 March 1900<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n Though this discrimination was apparent long before the plague entered San Francisco, the natural fear of sickness was used to envelop an entire race in its wrath and blame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over 100 years later, nearly the same discrimination has taken over our country in response to a new pandemic: Coronavirus. This respiratory virus was first reported in Wuhan, China and appeared in the United States by late January, bringing with it a new wave of hatred that has touched the entire world. It was common in the past for countries to name illnesses after other areas in order to evade blame; however, this method had since been extinguished and more formulaic approaches are used to identify new viruses. Unfortunately, this fault was placed anyway, and is plaguing the Asian community. In 2020, the virus was coined with the terms \u201cChinese Virus\u201d and \u201cWuhan Virus.\u201d The name was reiterated by many political figures, including the former president, Donald Trump, while he was in office (Abbott). Since such prominent figures were using this slang, it is not surprising it took hold and placed a bullseye on the backs of Asian people. Hate crimes against the Asian community increased by 150% in 2020 alone (Addo 2). People are being assaulted, stabbed, killed, and harassed simply because of their race. This hate has no excuse to stand on; viruses do not target people. Asian people are no more likely to contract or spread COVID-19 than a white person. In fact, this discrimination has actually helped increase the spread of the virus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The stigmatization of Asian people created a sense of \u201cpositive illusion,\u201d meaning that individuals were unknowingly spreading the virus because they only associated it with this specific population; thus, while keeping their distance from the Asian population, they continued socializing with every other population and fast-tracking it across the country (Demirta\u015f-Madran). This is one of the reasons it should be readily apparent that the pandemic is not only a health issue, but a human rights catastrophe, just as it was in 1900 Chinatown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The United States has not improved racial equality in the way that it should have in the past 100 years and this is quite evident through the methods implemented to try and eradicate disease. The Asian community is struggling now as it was in the 1900s, but they are not the only minority suffering. It is crucial for this country to get a handle on the discrimination it chooses to suppress. It may be a pandemic that exacerbates the issue now, but what\u2019s next?<\/p>\n\n\n\n FIRST THEY CAME Abbott, Carl. \u201cThe \u2018Chinese Flu\u2019 Is Part of a Long History of Racializing Disease.\u201d Bloomberg.com<\/em>, Bloomberg City Lab, 17 Mar. 2020, www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2020-03-17\/when-racism-and-disease-spread-together<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Addo, Isaac Yeboah. \u201cDouble pandemic: racial discrimination amid coronavirus disease 2019.\u201d Social Sciences & Humanities Open<\/em> vol. 2,1 (2020): 100074. doi:10.1016\/j.ssaho.2020.100074<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCovid-19 Fueling Anti-Asian Racism and Xenophobia Worldwide.\u201d Human Rights Watch<\/em>, Human Rights Watch, 28 Oct. 2020, www.hrw.org\/news\/2020\/05\/12\/covid-19-fueling-anti-asian-racism-and-xenophobia-worldwide#<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chase, Marilyn. 2003. The Barbary plague: the Black Death in Victorian San Francisco<\/em>. New York: Random House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Demirta\u015f-Madran, H Anda\u00e7. \u201cExploring the Motivation Behind Discrimination and Stigmatization Related to COVID-19: A Social Psychological Discussion Based on the Main Theoretical Explanations.\u201d Frontiers in psychology<\/em> vol. 11 569528. 13 Nov. 2020, doi:10.3389\/fpsyg.2020.569528<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/thinking-historically-about-covid-19\/files\/2021\/05\/Capture.png\")
<\/figure>COVID-19 Pandemic<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What\u2019s Next?<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.<\/p>By Martin Niem\u00f6ller<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nCitations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n