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History has shown that using fear as an excuse for racism during times of crisis is wrong move

This is a historical photo of unidentified children at the Manzanar internment camp in Independence, Calif.
This is a historical photo of unidentified children at the Manzanar internment camp in Independence, Calif.
(AP)

Nellie Tran, vice president of the Asian American Psychological Association and a professor of counseling and school psychology at San Diego State University, discusses the increase in acts of racism against people of East Asian ethnicity during the current novel coronavirus pandemic

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We’ve seen this before. A crisis, an emergency, panic and fear that lead to deplorable acts of bigotry, racism, xenophobia. We like to believe ourselves to be a country that is somehow above this kind of violence and harm, when in reality, they are part of the foundation of this nation. We have example after example of what happens when we allow irrational fears of other groups of people to direct our behaviors: We attempt to justify acts of enslavement, internment, other forms of physical and emotional violence, exclusion and more.

With the number of new cases of the novel coronavirus continuing to grow, along with the virus’ death toll, that same panic and fear have once again manifested in acts of racism against people of East Asian descent. We have a well-documented history of subjecting people in the Asian community to this kind of violence and mistreatment, from the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 to Executive Order 9066 during World War II.

Nellie Tran is an associate professor of counseling and school psychology at San Diego State University, who also serves as vice president of the Asian American Psychological Association. Her research is centered around subtle forms of discrimination (like microagressions) tied to issues of race and gender in education, counseling and in the work place. She took some time to discuss the current increase in racism against Asian people as a result of COVID-19, and how people’s fears should be redirected toward stopping the spread of the virus by following the recommendations of public health officials, rather than scapegoating entire groups of people. (This email interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

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Q: Despite guidelines from the World Health Organization that strongly encourage avoiding the use of language and phrases for infectious diseases that would cause “offence to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional, or ethnic groups,” President Donald Trump has repeatedly referred to the current novel coronavirus (COVID-19) as “the Chinese virus,” saying that the term is “accurate” because the virus was first identified in China. Why is his language being considered racist, rather than accurate?

A: There are several reasons why calling COVID-19 the “Chinese virus” is inaccurate. COVID-19 does not discriminate on who it infects. China does not own the virus, nor have any control on how and where it spreads. Chinese people are not disproportionately impacted by the virus, nor are they any more or less a carrier of the virus than any other human on this planet. Consequently, the Chinese virus is inaccurate and intentionally misleading. It doesn’t provide us with any additional information about the virus.

What makes this slang naming racist is that it perpetuates stereotypes and images of Chinese and other Asian peoples as dirty, diseased, foreign, and ultimately “not one of us.” It should make us question who is being considered “good” or “bad” and who benefits from this idea. In a situation where people may feel like they’ve lost control, it sometimes feels good to find blame or fault in others. However, inaccurately blaming a country or a population of people doesn’t provide us with the protection or control that we actually seek. Worse still is that it encourages inaccurate and prejudicial fears aimed towards an already marginalized segment of the U.S. population. This is especially true when government officials and others in positions of power and authority use biased terminology. It can be seen as granting permission for the general population to act on their racist ideas against Asian Americans.

Q: Can you talk a bit about the history we have of attaching bigotry to larger public emergencies, and what happened when people operated out of fear rather than fact?

A: Racism is ubiquitous within U.S. history, especially when Americans are most scared and looking for a quick solution to conjure a feeling of protection and safety. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor during WWII, anti-Japanese sentiments and fears resulted in the discrimination and racist detention of 120,000 Japanese Americans.

Around illnesses, Americans have notoriously associated illnesses to entire countries and populations of people out of fear. These have included Africans around the Ebola outbreak, the LGBT community around HIV/AIDS, Asians around SARS, H1N1, MERS, and avian influenza (H5N1). ... After 9/11, anxiety and fears were high, and it resulted in discrimination and racism pointed at Muslim Americans and even Sikh Americans. Similar types of xenophobia and racism can be seen when the economy isn’t doing well and employment rates are high, right now around undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers, especially those of Latinx descent.

Q: Why are attempts to justify these kinds of responses as being OK during times of crisis, the wrong approach to take?

A: Attaching a group identity or face to the fear has been one mechanism that people and the government have used to distance themselves from the fear and uncertainty they feel. While this psychological distancing might be helpful in the short term, it doesn’t actually help with creating real safety. With COVID-19, real protection and safety comes from social distancing, washing our hands, and being protective of our most vulnerable populations. Distancing oneself from only those that conjure feelings of fear, such as those who look Asian, does little to actually prevent an individual from being infected or spreading the virus. It isn’t accurate. That fear ends up harming us in the end.

Q: What lessons should we have learned from the past? And what lessons can we learn now?

A: These tactics are divisive. They do not benefit the average American. They actually create a false sense of control and safety, thereby preventing the individual from doing the very things that would allow them to be in control and be safe. We need to deal with the real issues and emotions that this global pandemic has brought up for us, rather than allowing marginalized fellow citizens to be scapegoated yet again. It’s not enough to fear being touched by an Asian American colleague, you should fear it from all of your colleagues. Social distancing is important for all of us. No one has magical immunity from COVID-19, nor does anyone necessarily have special powers to spread it. We need to work together and think about the broader impact of our actions on our whole society to make it through this pandemic.

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