Transcript
ARCHIVAL (ABC, 2020):
NEWS REPORT: An Asian American minding his own business as a total stranger berates him before spraying him with Febreze.
NARRATION: As fear spreads about the coronavirus, reports of physical and verbal attacks against Asian and Chinese Americans are rising as well.
ARCHIVAL (CNN, 2020):
NEWS REPORT: The person who recorded this says before the camera started rolling, the man had hit the woman on the head, used expletives and called her diseased. On the LA subway line, this man was ranting.
MAN: Every disease has come from China, everything comes from China.
NARRATION: There is a long history of targeting immigrant communities during disease outbreaks, including in 1900, when the bubonic plague hit North America for the first time.
San Francisco was hard hit by the disease which was carried by rats. But officials quarantined only one area – Chinatown – scapegoating the immigrant population there for starting the outbreak.
After two weeks, a court lifted the quarantine saying that the officials had imposed it with an “evil eye and unequal hand.”
ARCHIVAL (WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION, 2020):
DR. TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS (WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION DIRECTOR): The pandemic is accelerating…
NARRATION: Today, with coronavirus, the World Health Organization is cautioning that terms like “Chinese Virus” unfairly stigmatize Asian Americans. And the U.S. Centers for Disease Control has issued guidelines clarifying that people of Asian descent are not at greater risk of spreading COVID-19 than other Americans.
(END)
Xenophobia in the Age of COVID-19
Scapegoating immigrant groups in times of disease outbreak has a long history.
Verbal and physical attacks on Asian-Americans are on the rise as the new coronavirus, which scientists believe originated in China, spreads across the globe. Scapegoating immigrant groups in times of disease outbreak has a long history. In a 1900 outbreak of bubonic plague, San Francisco officials quarantined only one area – Chinatown – blaming the immigrant population there for starting the outbreak.
The World Health Organization warns that stigma and discrimination can occur when people associate a disease with a population or nationality. In naming diseases, WHO avoids using names of animals, places, or people.
This video was created with support from a Brown Institute for Media Innovation grant recognizing a need for accurate information about the COVID-19 virus.
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- Producer: Charu Raman
- Editor: Cullen Golden
