“Yo Is This Racist?” – Yumu Huo, Zhenyang Shao, Junyuan Luo

Yumu: Hello everyone, on today’s topic about “Yo Is This Racist,” we’ll be talking about racism against Asians during COVID-19. Let’s first have Zhenyang and Junyuan give us a brief introduction about what’s happening.

Zhenyang: Since the outbreak of the Covid-19, China and the Chinese people have been pushed to the forefront. The coronavirus first broke out in Wuhan, China, and spread to the world within a few months. The pandemic has been well controlled in some places, but it went out of control in some areas where the number of infected people doubled every few days or less. In these countries that the pandemic went out of control, people’s daily lives have been greatly negatively affected. Under this situation, some influencers lead public opinions by pointing fingers of blame at China and the Chinese people.

Junyuan: In the United States, we saw increasing numbers of reports of Chinese people who are treated unfairly, discriminated against, or even beaten by some aggressive people after the outbreak of Covid-19. People vent the sadness and anger of lost people, the difficulties and dissatisfaction of the inconvenience of life, and the economic downturn caused by the epidemic on Chinese. Also, discrimination against Chinese people has been going for a long time, and the pandemic has aggregated this situation.

Yumu: We have seen the word “Chinese Virus” a lot in the media. Hey Zhenyang, can you elaborate a little bit more?

Zhenyang: I have found some racist language of Donald Trump in public speaking. On March 19th, 2020, in a public presentation, Donald Trump uses the words” Chinese virus” over and over again while the academic terms for the pandemic are determined by WHO before that presentation, which is Covid-19. When a journalist asked him why you are constantly using the “Chinese virus,” he just simply responded that “because it comes from China. It is not racist at all, no, not at all. It comes from China, that is why. I want to be accurate.” Later, on March 24th, Donald Trump was interviewed by Fox News, “You have called this Chinese virus, but you did not use it today, so you do not regret that language?” He again emphasizes that I do not regret that, and everyone knows it comes from China (it is not), and I just want to be accurate. Later, on June 20th, during his campaign rally, Donald Trump again used the words “Chinese virus,” “Wuhan virus,” and “Kung flu” to interact with his supporters. Although there might be some dispute for those words that Donald Trump has said, those words are unrespectful and exactly hurt Chinese American citizens and every Chinese person.

Yumu: Would there be any differences if COVID-19 is originated in another country? What do you think, Junyuan?

Junyuan: Let’s imagine if the Covid-19 was not first discovered in China. What would happen? If it explodes in the United States, will Trump call it the American Virus or the US virus? Or do the US citizens want people all over the world to call it American Virus or the US virus? I think absolutely no. Nobody wants his or her homeland to be used to name a virus. Naming a virus with the name of a place or a group is disrespectful to the area or the group and offensive.

Zhenyang: There were other pandemics in history. How did we Chinese react to them?

Yumu: Like COVID-19, there are other epidemics that spread from one country to another. The known ones, like smallpox, H1N1, and AIDS, all brought extreme suffering to people around the world. But no one blamed where the disease was originated. I also looked back at the news from 2009 and 2010 in China. Most of the news were just providing data, plans of how we would control the disease, and some suggestion to the public. I didn’t see any news blaming anything. And there wasn’t news about anyone gets beat up on the street because they’re from the country that H1N1 was originated. But when searching for news about COVID-19 here in the US, the word “Chinese Virus” is everywhere. And cases of Chinese or even Asians got beat up or got hurt are countless ever since COVID-19 started.

Zhenyang: Did people from the country that originated the pandemic got hurt in China or other countries?

Yumu: I believe there weren’t discriminate against them. And I didn’t see any news of them getting hurt by us just because they are from their own country. I’ve never seen this kind of excessive rage against a race just because an epidemic was found on their land. I just feel confused to see this country yells equality, no discrimination, and the Chinese Virus at the same time.

Junyuan: Do you think it is inappropriate to name a pandemic after a country’s name? Do you think this is racist?

Zhenyang: Yes, absolutely. And I found some information on the official sites of WHO to see how they consider the name of the virus. From that, I found the answer. Actually, the term for the pandemic has been determined since February 11th. On the website, it said, “we now have a name for the disease: COVID-19. I’ll spell it: C-O-V-I-D hyphen one nine – COVID-19.” In addition, WHO also mentioned that they had to find a name that did not refer to a geographical location, an animal, an individual or group of people, and which is also pronounceable and related to the disease. From that, we can see that having a name is so important that it can prevent the use of other names that can be inaccurate or stigmatizing. Therefore, according to the WHO guideline, it does not make sense that Donald Trump called the pandemic as “Chinese virus” due to the geographical location.

Yumu: What are the reasons behind people’s actions of discrimination and violence to China and Chinese people? Why did these aggressive people attack Chinese people? What do you think, Junyuan?

Junyuan: I think we need to understand the reasons behind these actions. People are emotional. With some stimulation and guidance, the rational part of humans may be concealed by emotion. The pandemic has a great negative impact on people’s lives. Some cities are closed, curfewed, and some public activities are restricted. People need to wear masks when going out every day. Some public areas accept a limited number of people, schools and companies have to be closed. All kinds of regulations restrict people’s freedom. The pandemic has also caused the unemployment rate to rise, and some stores closed down. Many people have lost or reduced their income and are financially restricted. The country is also in an economic downturn, with stock markets, exchange rates, and interest rates plummeting. People are also afraid of infection because of fear of death, painful treatment, and huge costs. In such a depressive environment, people are easily affected by emotions. In addition, under the guidance of Trump’s remarks, people pointed their anger to the Chinese. But think about it, no one wants the epidemic, and the Chinese are also the sufferers in the pandemic as every American. Based on what, they should suffer more and tortured by these crazy people?

Zhenyang: Compared to H1N1, what happened back then? Were the situations the same or different from now?

Yumu: I remember there was an epidemic happening when I was about ten years old. The word H1N1 just suddenly popped out, and I can see it everywhere. I had no idea how severe it was. I was just told to keep myself sanitized as much as possible. No one was blaming about where and how it started but trying our best to stop the disease from spreading. When I was doing research about this disease, I found a very interesting fact. By comparing the information given by Baidu Baike, the Wikipedia of China, and Wikipedia, the information is very different. From what I read on Baidu Baike, there were no places, cities, or countries that were mentioned. But on Wikipedia, I saw a whole lot of places listed there.

Junyuan: What did you experience when H1N1 was spreading?

Yumu: I was in fourth grade when H1N1 attacked. We were told that the disease spreads mainly through droplets in the air. And if we wear masks in public areas, there is a big chance to not get infected. I can’t remember how long I wore those masks, but I remembered that the vaccines were out pretty quick. Being in China when H1N1 was out and being here in the United States while COVID-19 is spreading, I have totally different feelings. I see my friends got told not to get close to the crowd because their parents worried that they might get beat up. And every time I see cases about how people of our race got hurt because we are from our race, I get hurt a lot. I really feel that those people who use violence against people from certain race needs to be educated.

Junyuan: So, what do you think, Zhenyang? Do you have any other thoughts on that?

Zhenyang: I think another reason for that phenomenon is that some Americans discriminated against Chinese people originally. I think that is a trigger to cause the increasing phenomenon that Chinese people are bullied during the pandemic period. They bully Chinese people in order to show their anger. They have a stereotype that everything from China is bad, considering that they are more elegant than Chinese people. They are brainwashed by misleading media information and rumors so that they do not realize the fact. Although there are some cultural differences and conflicts between China and the United States, they just think straightforwardly that they are bad rather than try to accept that. That leads them to become racist.

Junyuan: Yeah, so, finally, thank you for your guys to share so much information about the racist issue during the Covid-19 period. I hope that the situation in the United States can get better as soon as possible.

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“Yo Is This Racist?” – Yumu Huo, Zhenyang Shao, Junyuan Luo

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