There has been a lot of problems caused by the coronavirus, and I don’t want to downplay the effects of each of them, but I think there is one side effect a lot of people negate. Because of the coronavirus, Asians are prone to be discriminated against for the notion that they somehow will give people the illness.   

Coming from the perspective of an Asian American, my mom being a first-generation immigrant, and half my family is living in China, I’ve seen and heard of first-hand racist encounters towards us merely for our race.   

There has been a lot of false information going around, information that is very detrimental to the general Asian population. Justifying things like the term “China virus” or that somehow the pandemic at the fault of the Chinese community, continues the negative environment that doesn’t just make me feel uncomfortable but my family as well.  

And most of the discrimination stems from a hypocritical population; in my opinion, if this had started in a European country, we would have never blamed them or called it things like the “Italy virus.” We would have supported them. But instead, the Chinese population is seen as dirty and sick, especially with the story of “someone eating a rat” being passed person to person.   

Some ways I’ve felt affected by this is an encounter my family and I had at the grocery store the other day, we were standing in line, and my mom accidentally stepped over a line. A white man proceeded to scream at her to “back off,” causing everyone to stare at us almost like aliens, not to mention the many stares we get merely walking around the grocery store.  

Another way this affects other Asian Americans than me is how some people choose to boycott Asian businesses because of racist tendencies. I’ve seen multiple posts of social media of Asian families who own small businesses struggling through this crisis to make ends meet. I’ve gone to various Asian–owned grocery stores that lacked any people and are fully stocked with food.   

So, with so many people discriminating Asian businesses, it is crucial to support them by ordering take out, buying groceries from their stores, and helping in any way you can.   

Yes, the Corona virus did originate in China, but that gives no right for people to boycott businesses, give ugly stares, and permit racism towards people who are innocent and trying make by. We are all in this together, and we are all human, so we shouldn’t blame a whole race for something inevitable.