Member-only story
Racist Coronavirus Myths
You must have heard coronavirus renamed the ‘Chinese virus’ in President Trump’s speech to the American people. Well, it may seem casual, but the impact of his remarks to billions of people across the world have been an added fuel to the anti-Asian racism spreading across the globe. People and even close advisers to President Trump have gone to greater lengths to also create new terms for the virus like the ‘Wuhan virus’ and the ‘Kung Flu.’
While it may seem to be innocent by referring to the virus by the country of origin, just like the 1918 Spanish flu got the name, today’s impact is different. There have been reported attacks on Asians and people taking pictures of Asians and sharing them on social media platforms asking their friends and families to pray for them. According to the Guardian, Rosalind Chou, an associate professor of sociology at Georgia State University, says she fears to cough or to sneeze in public, and the possible outcome of such a scenario. Should she?
Well, human beings are great at branding faces to faceless things, just as other negative stereotypes have been able to thrive across communities, so is the ‘Kung Flu’ narrative. While we should acknowledge that the novel virus originated from Wuhan China, it is now a global pandemic that should be addressed and not used as a tool to peddle racial hate and get political mileage. Far-right parties in…
