“All you savages eat are snakes and bats!”
“Go back to f**king China!”
These are phrases that I and thousands of other Asian Americans have heard time and time again in the past few of months.
Trump’s “Chinese Virus” label triggered an eruption in sinophobic attacks, and as the country opens up, the Asian American community continues to suffer from the pandemic of hate by wrongfully absorbing the hurtful and racist blows targeted at our community.
For instance, a dad in Queens, NY was walking with his 10-year-old son to the bus stop while a man followed him, shouting racial slurs and berating him in front of his son: “Where the f**k is your mask?! You f**king Chinese!” he yelled.
When the dad and his son were about to board the bus, the man struck the dad over the head while his 10-year-old son watched helplessly. The father told the New York Post, “He wasn’t drunk. He came after me because I was Chinese, but I’m American. With the mask, they attack you, and without the mask they attack you, so what are they doing?!”
As an American young adult of Chinese descent who has experienced racism first-hand, I cannot stay in the shadow while thousands of Asian-Americans are getting abused. I always take pride in being an American living in the “land of opportunity” and in the “melting pot of cultures,” but I cannot continue to hide in the shadow when I hear of and experience racial intolerance in a country that promises freedom and equality for all. I feel this country has become permanently stained by the language that Trump and some other public figures have chosen.
“I have great love for all of the people from our country,” Trump responded after being challenged by a reporter about his repulsive and repetitive usage of the term “Chinese Virus,” despite putting millions of Americans in danger and in constant fear of being attacked. Notwithstanding being caught up amid an international crisis, witnessing more than one million Americans fall victim to the unrestrained coronavirus, Trump made it transparent that he prioritizes name-calling, while simultaneously provoking anti-Chinese sentiment, over the health, safety, and wellbeing of the American people.
Despite the World Health Organization warning people to be careful about how they refer to the virus, Republican Senator John Cornyn chose to ignore this warning along with Trump, and told a reporter that “China is to blame because the culture where people eat bats and snakes…and things like that.” On the talk show “The Five,” Jesse Watters, a Fox News commentator, obnoxiously bellowed, “I’d like to ask the Chinese for a formal apology…I’ll tell you why it started in China, because they have these markets where they\’re eating raw bats and snakes.”
Both Cornyn and Watters are resuscitating a stereotype that has long been dormant. However, contrary to popular belief, this destructive stereotype is largely inaccurate. Expert Peter Li, associate professor East Asian politics at the University of Houston wrote, “Chinese as a whole do not have wildlife eating habit,” wrote Li, “It is… just like a small number of people in the U.S. dare to eat rattlesnakes…The eating habit is not Chinese and not traditional.”
When public figures disparage Chinese people as savages, they create an erroneous and troubling narrative of China while simultaneously catalyzing anti-Asian sentiment. Aside from revealing the intolerance for minority cultures that is occurring in the U.S., this narrative also reflects how quickly people believe rumors about China formulated without tangible evidence, highlighting how easily people scapegoat other countries out of fear and a lack of awareness and acceptance for their own errors.
What will all of this mean for Asian Americans when the country resumes to normal life? Will Asian Americans face a new phase of bullying and harassment? Will Asian Americans still fear leaving their houses and potentially getting beat up while walking to work? Will young Asian American adults become victims of even more racial harassment in school?
Just as Muslim-Americans were racially harassed after 9/11, and as Japanese-Americans were racially abused because of their economic success during the 1980s, there is no doubt that Chinese Americans are the next in the hot seat, and I am truly worried about what is to come for the Chinese American community.
Personally, having experienced racism myself this year in high school, there is no doubt that I am fearful of what is to come for my next three years of high school. In my first six months of high school, I have been called a “chink,” “small-eyes,” and a variety of other racial slurs by fellow students at my school. Yet the worst thing about this is that no one stood up for me until I finally stood up for myself.
If you are reading this and you are not a Chinese American, I hope that you take into account the racial intolerance that is circulating throughout the country due to the irresponsible rhetoric from public figures. Your friends, neighbors, and coworkers might be experiencing this racial harassment. Instead of joining in on these efforts to belittle and bully the Chinese people in our country and falsely accuse them of “making and spreading the virus,” I hope that you treat them equally with respect. Love trumps hate.
And to my fellow Asian Americans who feel the same apprehension as I do: you will never be alone.
It is time for us to take a united stand against racism, to get out from the shadow, and to put an end to the hate that is plaguing our country.
Stand up for yourself, or no one else will.