How Corona Changed Me : Racism
Back in 2019, when I was loving and living my best life, I couldn’t wait for 2020. The upcoming year had so many exciting plans to look forward to. We celebrated New Year’s Eve in Singapore, one of our favourite countries and spent almost a month there. We were scoping it out, with the idea to move there a few years later. After spending almost the entire January in Singapore, we travelled one week to Malaysia, before heading back to the U.K. Whilst in Malaysia, we started hearing whispers of Coronavirus. To be honest, we weren’t that concerned at the time.
We thought we had managed to escape a potentially dangerous situation and thanked God for being able to come back to England safely. Little did we know, what was about to happen, and how much our world would be brought to a literal standstill.
In February, my husband and I enjoyed a mini staycation at a central London hotel. On the way there and upon jumping on the Northern line, I could see some people were looking us up and down. Perhaps the way we look, added with the suitcase screamed out “foreigners!” or more accurately “foreigners with the virus!”
After making their judgments based purely on appearance and assumptions, I noticed a few women (in particular), moving out of the way and to another part of the carriage. The most frustrating part for me was to juggle the conflicting thoughts in my mind; were they moving to get away from us, or was it coincidence? Deep down in my heart, I knew it wasn’t the latter, but there wasn’t any evidence to confront them directly either. Though I tried to push it to the back of my mind, I couldn’t shake off the deep troubling feeling that had settled in my stomach.
In March, I had booked a surprise mini-getaway to Brussels for my husband’s birthday. Despite the concerns, since it was all pre-booked and non-refundable, we decided to go anyway. I remember a shift from the moment we travelled to Brussels. We normally never think twice about travelling or feel out of place, but this time something felt different. As soon as we were on the train to St.Pancras, I felt people were assessing us; as if they were thinking twice about sitting near us. After a brief moment of hesitation, they decided not to.
It was difficult not to feel a certain way, but I put it down to my own paranoia about the way the world was perhaps viewing us. Due to our skin tone and features though, it was hard to fade into the background, especially with everything going on at the time.
Upon getting off the train, we encountered a woman who was directly in front of us. As we were about to get onto the escalator, she took one look at us, and did a complete 360, choosing to take the stairs instead. The move she had pulled was risky for both her and us, but she decided it was safer to almost get crushed at the escalator, than to stand next to two people who looked like they could be carrying a virus.
On the Eurostar to Brussels, the train was completely packed and if it wasn’t for that fact, along with designated seats, I don’t think people would have chosen to sit near us. The majority did a double take whilst frowning, as if they were thinking “oh no...virus”
We were worried about receiving a similar treatment in Brussels, but we didn’t. In fact, people were perfectly nice to us and one group of friendly women stopped to ask us to take a picture of them. Afterwards, they complimented the photo and stopped to have a little chat. I could have almost cried at that small gesture, and they will never know what that meant to me at the time.
Whilst we were in Brussels, Belgium started to go into lockdown, but we were luckily able to make it back safely. This time the train was empty, and I breathed a sigh of relief. After arriving at St. Pancras, as our train home approached, we noticed a woman who initially went for the same door as us, but when noticing we were Asian, she immediately turned and walked away to the other carriage door. That definitely wasn’t a coincidence.
Even though many countries worldwide, had already started to take action, it wasn’t until March that our government took action and even then, I say “action” in the loosest of terms. Though I knew lockdown was necessary and was frustrated at the government for their initial slow response, when the country finally did go into lockdown, I couldn’t help but feel fearful of what was about to come.
Suddenly we were overwhelmed by the increased news reports about attacks on people who were, or looked like they were from East/ South East Asia. For the first time, I felt fearful of going out and fearful for my mum particularly due to her age, height and having an accent. The fear of contracting the virus was second, to our fear of being victims of racism. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one to stand there and be victim, and on countless occasions during my life, I have fought back. However, having experienced many examples of hostility already, I didn’t want to leave the house feeling like I would have to go into battle each time.
Due to poor health, my mum takes medication and as a side effect, it makes her cough. She was in a shop one time, and she said the man next to gave her this disgusted look and immediately turned away. He made her feel like she was nothing, and made her paranoid about coughing in public. My mum who ventured out a few times before lockdown, the same mum who is fierce and fearless, gave up and told me that she felt as defeated as I. That made me feel more disheartened.
The news really didn’t help either. There was the report of Johnathan Mok, a Singaporean UCL student who was walking along Oxford Street when, he was attacked by two boys who shouted “I don’t want your Coronavirus in this country”. With his face splashed across the news headlines, we were all witnesses to his vicious assault, with a badly bruised face and one eye so blackened and swollen, he could barely open it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-51771355
Then there was Mandy Huang, who is a Chinese British girl from London. She travelled to Birmingham to celebrate her friend Meera Solanki’s 29th birthday. They were harassed by a group of men, before they picked on Mandy calling her a “dirty chink” and telling her “take your fucking Corona virus and take it back home.” As Meera shouted at him and tried to defend Mandy by pushing him away, the man punched her in the head, where she hit the pavement and was knocked unconscious. As Meera lay on the floor unconscious, the men continued to shout abuse at Mandy and the other friend.
During the first few weeks of the lockdown, though I wanted to wear a mask to minimise risk, I was hesitant because there were constant Coronavirus updates in the media, linked with images of our community, with racial undertones. I felt if I wore a mask, I would be associated with the virus and if I didn’t, I would be putting myself at risk. I decided to put myself at risk, but prayed that if I went anywhere, that others wore masks, so I could do the same without looking/ feeling like an outsider.
I’m lucky enough to live 5 minutes away from Korea town, and chose to do my food shopping there to avoid going to bigger supermarkets like Tesco, Sainsbury’s etc and experience more discrimination. There were times my husband went to these supermarkets alone, and experienced great hostility from various people. Being Asian, seemed to be a free pass to have a dig at us, or be extremely hostile for no reason at all.
I mainly stayed at home and can literally count the number of times I have left the house since the U.K. lockdown began. In the 19 weeks of lockdown, I’ve been out twice to the supermarket, 5 times to the local hospital (due to ill-health) and 3 times to the post office. That’s a total of 10 times in 19 weeks. If you discount the hospital visits, it’s 5 times in 19 weeks, which means there were times I stayed home for 4 weeks and didn’t leave the house once.
The last time I ventured out was over 3 weeks ago, and that’s because my husband forced me to get some fresh air, with the excuse of posting a letter. As soon as I stepped out onto my front drive, our neighbour’s youngest daughter saw us and said “ewww, it’s Coronavirus”. I couldn’t shout or retaliate at a child because ultimately, she’s not the one with the racist views, it’s her family. Racism is not innate, it’s learnt behaviour.
Now that the lockdown restrictions are lifting, there is no improvement with discriminatory and ignorant views towards our community. More recently I came across an Instagram post by a woman who shared an incident about her God Brother, who had been assaulted in Edinburgh on the 4th July. She reported that her God Brother and colleagues were working in Edinburgh’s Maki & Ramen restaurant, when 6 men were outside chanting racial slurs. They were chanting “get back to your chinky country, you chinky cunts”, before entering the premises and attacking her God Brother, as well as the other staff. I didn’t attach his picture here, because I don’t have her permission directly, but needless to say it’s horrific; one eye appears black, and heavily bruised. Much like Johnathan’s eye, it looks extremely painful, sore and like he struggles to even open it. He was attacked when he was at his place of work, and endured racial abuse even though ironically, he was born and raised in Scotland.
@simplypawly/ Instagram
Around 2 weeks ago, an 89 year old Chinese American woman was slapped and set alight by 2 random men in Brooklyn. They didn’t know her and though it was clearly a racially aggravated incident, the police said it couldn’t be proven as hate crime, as the men hadn’t said anything to her. This news story particularly hit a nerve with me, because this woman could have been anyone’s grandmother. She was minding her own business, and these two men attacked a defenceless elderly woman. To be honest, all the victims were minding their own business when they were set upon by these ruthless individuals. Whether it’s the States, or the UK, there have been increased reports of racial attacks against the E/SEA community.
https://abc7ny.com/woman-set-on-fire-elderly-attack-89-year-old-attacked-bensonhurst-crime/6333749/
Sadly, the words and actions of so-called world leaders like Trump, not only hasn’t helped to stem the flow of racism; he has in fact ignited the flames, and added dynamite to the mix. Reminding me of ignorant playground bullies at school, Trump has dangerously used derogatory phrases such as “China virus” and “Kung flu”. Not only is he fanning the flames of racism, we forget he is supposed to be a world leader, with influence over his millions of adoring and brainwashed followers.
Though it is unclear exactly how many E/SEA people are living in the UK, there are around 433,000 Chinese people alone. What was evident to me when researching statistics and numbers was what little information there was on our community, including numbers on specific minority groups and many figures were extremely dated.
During the pandemic, there has been a reported threefold increase in racism towards the E/SEA community. This is even though many contribute to the economy, education system, are law abiding citizens, and many people from our community, have died whist working on the NHS frontline. I’m certain the figures don’t reflect the true number of racial cases, as many go unreported.
Dr Diana Yeh, who is a Lecturer of Sociology, Culture and the Creative Industries at City University, shared her thoughts in a recent interview, as the Principle Investigator of the project ‘Becoming East and Southeast Asian’. Dr Yeh highlighted that though E/SEA students form the highest percentage of international students, our community remains the most “invisible” in both academic and policy debates on citizenship, multiculturalism, and diversity.
It has been reported that up to 15% of the Chinese community in Britain have experienced racial discrimination “yet, there’s an assumption that the Chinese and other East and Southeast Asians don’t experience racism or suffer racial disadvantages, as they are seen as a ‘model minority’ who are well integrated in terms of education and employment”
Please read more about her project as it will provide further insight and is brilliantly written:
When I think about it, other than Sarah Owens who is the MP for Luton North - who is the first Labour MP of East Asian descent and first female MP of Chinese descent - I don’t know many other public figures who actively and regularly fight for the rights of our community. Sarah herself highlighted her own experiences of online racial abuse increasing, and people telling her “it’s your fault because you eat bats”.
Though I have experienced racism many times in the UK before, I have never experienced or witnessed this level of aggression and hostility towards our community in my entire life. Though my husband and I had prior thoughts of moving to Singapore, sadly our experiences during the pandemic, has only cemented our wishes to move away from the UK. Having been born and raised in the UK, and though I, myself feel like I've contributed a lot to the system and society, I no longer feel welcome in my own home country.
Mental health isn’t a topic that is openly discussed in Asian communities, but I have definitely suffered a lot with anxiety during these horrendous last 4 months, as I’m sure others have in the community.
Luckily, my friends and family have been an amazing support group for me. I have had several friends who have offered to travel to my house to see me and go for a walk in the local area, although I have turned them down. They have not taken my decision personally, acknowledging my fear is real and understanding my reasons for not wanting to go out right now. I hope this will change soon, as I have an upcoming holiday/ friend’s wedding to attend in Greece. It will be a huge test for me, considering how mentally and physically homebound I have been.
One thing is for sure, is that we cannot stop fighting as a community. Yes I am admitting to having fear of going out right now, but when (not if), I eventually venture out, I will challenge any form of racism that comes my way; as I have always done. I’ve heard some people deliberately not fight back saying “what’s the point?'", “what if it makes it worse?” but if we don’t challenge this and stand up for ourselves, and our community, nothing will change. We are often seen to be the quieter race and therefore the weaker race, and that needs to change too. I stand up for myself, to make that racist person think twice. Hopefully if I’ve retaliated enough, maybe they’ll think twice before attacking someone like my mum or a defenceless elderly woman again.
Before I end, I wanted to give a shout out to a group I have recently come across called ‘End the Virus of Racism’. They are the UK’s first nonprofit addressing the racism towards people of East and Southeast Asian heritage. I have been hugely inspired by such a group who want to stand up and fight for the rights of our community. Sadly I think there is slow traction, unlike support for other minority groups, but we need to keep going and support one another. It’s time to speak up!
How you can help:
If someone challenges you, you don’t need to shout or physically fight back, but make it very clear that what they said was unacceptable.
Report any type of racial abuse. The police may appear disinterested, but we are not here to make their lives easier, it’s the other way around.
Write to your local MP asking them to help. One person’s voice might not be enough but collectively, our voices will be heard.
Join and support groups like ‘End the Virus of Racism’.
Share news articles and posts that highlight these problems, amongst your friends/ family and social media. Social media in particular can be an effective tool when fighting against issues of racism.
Tag big influencers/ celebrities/ public figures who could have more sway, if they shared your post.
Until next time xo
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