Helen Zia Washington Post Op-ed: Targeting Asians and Asian Americans will make it harder to stop COVID-19
Though the wave of anti-Asian racism that looms in response to the global coronavirus pandemic is ugly and frightening, it is not new. I should know: I witnessed the harassment and violence Asian Americans faced in the wake of the collapse of the U.S. manufacturing sector in the 1980s. Scapegoating Asian immigrants and Asian Americans did nothing to save the U.S. auto industry then. And it won’t provide the scientific advances and government leadership necessary to slow the spread of covid-19 now.
…
Everyone "Japanese looking" became targets as hate-filled rhetoric dominated the airwaves. I never knew when someone might curse me with racist epithets, or threaten to get violent, even though I, too, had lost my job.
Our fears were realized in 1982, when two white autoworkers in Detroit bludgeoned to death a 27-year old Chinese American named Vincent Chin. Witnesses reported hearing the perpetrators tell Chin that “It’s because of you motherf------ that we’re out of work!” His killers never spent a full day in jail. And their rage did nothing to help Detroit autoworkers get back into their factories.
But Chin’s murder triggered a national civil rights campaign. The multiracial, cross-cultural coalition that emerged helped enact changes in the law that have benefited all Americans in the decade since, from allowing victim impact statements to be read at sentencing to protections against hate crimes.
The similarities between the anti-Japanese racism of the 1980s and the current racially charged response to the coronavirus pandemic are chilling. President Trump has made the deliberate decision to use anti-Chinese language to describe the disease. Already, there are hundreds of reports of anti-Asian harassment and violence. This violence could become much worse as more people lose jobs — and lives.
…
At this time of grave uncertainty, everyone is at risk. Anti-Asian racism is no cure for covid-19; instead, it’s another virus that puts us all in danger.
Helen Zia was a spokesperson for the Justice for Vincent Chin campaign and is the author of “Last Boat Out of Shanghai.”