Discrimination during the Pandemic

Alde Lorenzo Miguel S.

Barlis Joseph Paul. D.F
John Benedict P. Laroco
Morales Rennard Ephraim
Pamatian Dann Adrian I
U Christian Dale G.
 Grade 12 St. Thomas the Apostle

Introduction:
In 2019, a virus known as SARS-CoV-2 was a detected in a wet market in Wuhan China
and then from there it began spreading slowly through various parts of the world. From here out,
life changed when the pandemic started, everyone was forced to be protected with face masks,
monitoring the virus has become an everyday occurrence and staying at home is a particularly
important protocol making it difficult. However, unknowingly to most people worldwide, there
has been an increase of hate and discrimination among people in communities and countries
because of the uncertainty that one might be carrying the virus and will spread it to other parts of
the country. There have been other motives for having an increase of discrimination such Asian
hate, people who are either vaxxed or unvaccinated, and those who are maskers and anti-
maskers. In this decade, various forms and methods of discrimination have become another
factor to deal with during the COVID 19 pandemic as this is a disruption of building social
relationships that affects human dignity and life in society that can impact and hinder our
relationship with God regarding compassion and unity which needed to be resolved immediately.
Discrimination has been a problem to any society and there are many types of discrimination
present even during the COVID 19 pandemic that needs to be addressed.

Body:
Evidence 1
As the covid-19 pandemic commenced, social media and communities aside from Asians
have amplified their hating and fighting on people who identify themselves as Asians. Research
shows that the covid-19 virus started from Wuhan, China Asia. The virus was believed to have
come from bats since the virus is a close relative of Sars. This sparked another racist belief
against Asians that they spread the virus through the entire world because they were Asians, and
the virus was made and caused by them. Hate crime in the United States is in its most evident.
even though you are not Asian but have characteristics and looks of one, the person might treat
you violently because of the racist belief that you caused the virus. What makes Asian hate crime
more depressing is that it’s a form of freedom of expression by the people hating, legally it
cannot be suppressed or tamed by law and these acts of hate will not arise to a criminal offense
unless violent actions were done. Asian-Americans play a significant role in America’s history.
Most of them were the pioneers of the economy and its growth. During the pandemic, solidarity
and unity is an important value we must have to overcome the ongoing pandemic. We must think
as one, feel as one, and have a common cause. The Asian-American community in the US were
heavily targeted and inflicted with violence furthermore dividing the unity of communities and
the country.
“Even before the deadly Atlanta-area spa shootings in March, Asian Americans and Pacific
Islanders (AAPI) had faced nearly 4,000 hate incidents since the pandemic began, a 149% rise over
the previous year (Stop AAPI Hate National Report, 2021; Anti‐Asian Prejudice March 2020, Center
for the Study of Hate & Extremism). Reported episodes range from verbal harassment, insults, and
jokes—such as referring to COVID-19 as the “kung flu”—to violent attacks in schools, businesses,
and other public spaces.”(OAGC 2020)

Early research has linked the uptick in anti-Asian discrimination to increases in anxiety,
depressive symptoms, and sleep problems among those who are targeted. Getting help isn’t
always straightforward. AAPI individuals are less likely to access mental health services than
any other racial group, partly because of the cultural bias against it but also due to a lack of
culturally relevant approaches to treatment. Governments should take urgent steps to prevent
racist and xenophobic violence and discrimination linked to the Covid-19 pandemic while
prosecuting racial attacks against Asians and people of Asian descent, Human Rights Watch said
today. On May 8, 2020, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that “the
pandemic continues to unleash a tsunami of hate and xenophobia, scapegoating and scare-
mongering” and urged governments to “act now to strengthen the immunity of our societies
against the virus of hate.” (OAGC 2020)
Evidence 2:
Asian hate has a long history in the US. The virus is one of the multitudes of factors why
Asian hate is escalated in the pandemic. Firstly, due to their economic expertise and
involvement. Back then Chinese people were the laborers, they worked in factories, construction,
and a lot more. Consequently, displacing Americans leaving them no jobs for them to work on.
This spiked unemployment for the Americans as Chinese people slowly obtained their economy
later consisting most of the workforce. Chinese people were mostly blamed on when an epidemic
happens or if they discovered a new virus. On one occasion, there was a Chinese person that died
from the bubonic plague in 1900. The Americans from New York undoubtedly blamed the
Chinese for bringing and spreading the virus in the city. They quickly banned and locked down
Chinatown of New York but found out 3 months later that the bubonic virus did not start from
Chinatown but elsewhere. Asian hate crime doubled from 2019 to 2020. An increase of 125% of
hate crime. There was history and beliefs that contributed to this swelling issue at the onset of the
pandemic. But the driving force of Asian hate was their populist president, Donald Trump, and
racism and discrimination. Their president made countless allegations against China. Instead of
calling it “covid-19”, he called it as the Chinese virus. This sparked violence and new racist
belief that Asians most primarily Chinese people are the ones to blame.
Evidence 3:
During the pandemic, frontline health workers have been experiencing stigma and social
discrimination and there has been several forms of stigma and discrimination around the globe,
towards Asians and frontline health workers (Corpuz, 2021). Even in times of crisis, there are
still types of discrimination present in society, and this could psychologically affect majority of
Asian people, especially frontline health workers and their performance in helping COVID-19
patients. Frontline health workers have been victims of societal disapproval, and some residents
are uncomfortable when a frontline health worker lives near them due to fear of being exposed to
COVID-19 virus as frontline health workers have been open and exposed to COVID-19 patients
(Singh & Subedi, 2020). As for the Asian, there have been an increasing rate of xenophobic
backlash and racial discrimination towards Asians as many people worldwide blames the
Chinese people for the spread of the virus around the world (Okazaki, n.d.). Discrimination
present during the pandemic is caused by people blaming China and its community as China is
the place origin of the coronavirus and where it started the pandemic.
Counterargument:
The origin of the virus and pandemic had been proven that it indeed originated from
Wuhan, China, but the Chinese government had further restricted the public information of the
outbreak. It is not a matter of hate against the Chinese and other Asians, but the criticisms of how
the virus was mishandled. Such violence and harassment are not an ideal representation, but the
criticisms and blames should not be ignored as well. Generalization and stereotypes could impact
a hazardous and strained relationship of people to one another just because of their
characteristics and origin. Mistrust and conflict of confrontation to Asians are going to be deeply
antagonized and a bad perspective to them as a fault of the pandemic, but pandemic is often
inevitable and could originate much elsewhere anyway. The cause is based on its origin of the
Pandemic and the first people who the first cases should not be classified as the accountability of
the race on its own.

Asian hate within the United States was unjustified, as the Asian hate was a
generalization to be racist towards anyone who identified as Asian or looked Asian. The hate and
reason for the racism is unjustified for the reason it is not the Asians fault that the pandemic
started, while it is true that the pandemic started within Asian territories, it is not every single
Asian blood's fault that it started as most of the Asian-American hate for those who lived in the
States undoubtedly have no connection with the people in Wuhan in the first place. Thus, making
the hate on them unjustified as they were simply living a normal life and not hurting anyone,
they were just another citizen of the United States who have an Asian lineage.
Conclusion:
Asian hate is unjustified for the sole fact that it is still horrible and should not exist,
hurting others in the first place is never good. The generalization of Asian hate for the sole fact
the assumption that a single mistake from Wuhan would cause people to hate Asians all over
even if they have no ties with Wuhan in the first place, and even if they do, hating others is still
not right because even if Wuhan was the place where the virus originated, and it spread from
there. We should still forgive them and instead of making even bigger problems for other Asians
who had no reason to be harassed and blaming on others, people should instead work together to
defeat the virus together. Hating and blaming was and never will be able to solve anything but
joining forces with them and everyone else for that matter will be worth more of our time than
bashing on others who are not even at fault for it.

Source:
Corpuz J. (2021, February 26). ‘We are not the virus’: stigmatization and discrimination against
frontline health workers. From https://academic.oup.com/jpubhealth/article/43/2/e327/6151704

Singh R. & Subedi M. (2020, June 13). COVID-19 and stigma: Social discrimination towards
frontline healthcare providers and COVID-19 recovered patients in Nepal. From
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7293527/#bib0010

Okazaki S. (n.d.). Asian American Experiences of Racism during COVID-19. From

https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/ihdsc/on-the-ground/asian-american-experiences-racism-during-covid-
19

oag.ca.gov,. (2020) Anti-Asian Hate Crime Events During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/media/anti-asian-hc-report.pdf