Xenophobia: A Different Kind of Virus
When President Trump labeled COVID-19 the “Chinese Virus” in late March, he initially received opposition from Chinese officials and those connected with WHO (World Health Organization). Although Trump eventually walked back his comments, xenophobic fears towards people of Asian descent have continued to persist as a product of the coronavirus.
When LA’s “Safer-at-Home” orders began, LA resident of Filipino descent Anthony Galang was harassed at a grocery store as he was leaving, which he posted about on Facebook that day, “Was leaving the store and some guy starts yelling at me ‘it’s because of yalls coming to our country spreading these diseases.’”
Galang recognizes that Trump has walked-back his “Chinese Virus” comments but said, “I think the damage is already done. How he’s handled the situation is appalling. His comments of trying to take it back doesn’t really change the fact that people are still facing hate. People are still facing bigotry because of his comments.”
Galang also expressed that in the past if he ever experienced xenophobia, strangers would usually step in to condemn the actions, but when no one intervened during this incident, “it kind of opened [his] eyes that this is the world we’re living in now. It’s scary.”
Xenophobic beliefs have been deeply rooted against immigrants during America’s history. Dr. Leslie Kawaguchi, a Santa Monica College (SMC) history professor, describes America’s history with Japanese Americans during WWII. “Franklin Roosevelt did nothing to stop the anti-Japanese sentiment and signed Executive Order 9066 allowing military commanders to choose who they saw as dangerous and remove them from ‘sensitive areas.’" Kawaguchi explained that during this and other examples of immigrant xenophobia, “the presidents did little to quell the suspicions of people regarding the loyalty of the groups.”
Even abroad, xenophobia has become more prevalent. In France, French-Asians started the Twitter hashtag #Jenesuispasunvirus (“I am not a virus”) in late January to speak out against xenophobic rhetoric towards Asians. Mi Kwan, an actress and French citizen, did not face any personal discrimination directly, but said, “there’s a rise in racism against Asians in France, [including] even parodies of Disney movies with defamatory comments insulting Chinese…it kills me.”
Nox Yang, a film student at the University of California, Los Angeles, is taking a different approach when it comes to xenophobia. She is working on a documentary about the Chinese experience. “People don’t understand how huge China is. We have 1.3 billion people, 56 provinces, with different traditions, dialects, food…I want to show people that Chinese are a diverse community, we’re doing different things, we have different experiences, we are not all [viruses], or have the virus. I want to show them the individuals in this community. To humanize this community by telling personal and individual stories.”
One of the students (who preferred to remain anonymous) in Yang’s documentary helped activate the Chinese Student Association in North America in late January. “They donate the money, ask more people to donate money and use the money to buy medical resources and supplies to send back to China. They are doing great things while also managing their schoolwork,” Yang said.
When asked about our current rising xenophobia due to COVID-19 and its similarities from the past, Elham Gheytanchi, an Iranian-American sociologist at SMC, expressed that public fears of the “other” should have evolved by now. “We've [had] plague, MERS and ’yellow peril,’ which people assumed originated in Asia. Back then the public expression of xenophobia was prevalent. What is different now is that we should have zero to low tolerance for racism or xenophobia in our lives…We need not fear the other as we now share a more globalized world where we are all connected through travel, social media and our interconnected economies,” Gheytanchi said.
As the global crisis of COVID-19 has caused xenophobic actions towards people of Asian descent, Gheytanchi also spoke of the psychological and sociological risks for society.
“Xenophobia brings fear and lack of trust,” Gheytanchi said. “Whenever we have these two things, we become a good target for dictatorship, tyranny and sabotage our laws.”