NOA Episode 1.1 Coronavirus and Racism
Image Credit: Peter Bryne/PA
Interview with Yoojin Lee / First-year Law (Korean-American)
“Even before the virus, I realise that there is a lot of passive racism that you get as an Asian person. I volunteer at a drama school on Saturdays, and the first day I went I happened to be the only Asian volunteer. During lunchtime, I ran into another volunteer who also happened to be Asian. I’ve never met him before, he turned out to be a UCL Economics student, we were talking and one of the teachers came up to us and she was Caucasian, and she said ‘Oh! Are you guys dating?’ and we said ‘No!’. I was going to say ‘No, we just met’, but the guy thought it would be funny to say ‘No, we’re related.’ Since the kids I volunteered to take care of, none of them were Asian, so they assumed the moment he entered the room we were related. That can be excused because they are kids, but this was a 40-year-old Caucasian woman, assuming that an Asian man and an Asian woman must either be dating or related. When the guy said, ‘actually we’re related’, the woman laughed and said, ‘I thought that but I didn't want to be racist.’
I think the interesting thing about us being Asians is that we are minority but not in the same sense as other people. There is a term they use to describe this, which is ‘model minority’. So we are the minority, but we are not too different. Especially in countries like America, Asians have been painted as the minority that everyone wants. They are associated with higher earnings, they are usually going to be expats, even technically on the definition level it is the same. The idea is that we are respectable, we make our money and we stay quiet. That is kind of the conception that is around Asians, it has always been interesting that we have been in the minority category but never really, at least for myself, experienced the aggressive side of racism.
The kind of racism that I have experienced was like ‘Oh, you’re Korean you must be good at Maths.’ or like ‘You all look the same’, which is harmful of course, but it is not the same as physical violence, or people who are Black who from the moment they enter school kids touch their arms and say ‘why does your skin look like that?’ You have never had to experience that as an Asian but then because of the coronavirus, I see more of the underlying stuff that people were hiding away, the fact that Asians are dirty, we must all be from China, and we must all carry the virus. All that stuff has boiled to the front, and it has been quite a thing to adjust to because I am so used to getting the subverted type of racism, as a ‘model minority’.”
What is your opinion on ‘speaking out’ and the traditional mentality of ‘keeping your head down’ and ‘not fighting back’ because at the end of the day you will lose out?
I think on one hand people blame the victim on such attacks and they say why didn’t you fight back, why didn’t you say anything, but you are in such a vulnerable position, especially if you see these tall white men and if you are a small asian girl, you are outweighed in every sense of the word. At the moment, your brain freezes and you don’t know what to say, but i think everyone deals with it differently...I do not want to say if you do not speak out you are a coward. It is a burden to put on people, but at the same time, if you do not speak out, you are allowing it to happen.
In your opinion, how has the media’s narrative helped to prepetuate the discrimination and prejudice?
There are a lot of cultural diffusion from Asia, so a lot of people are used to seeing Asian faces, and because of the pure amount of population in Asia, I also think we are all so spread out, so people are used to seeing us and they are not going to say anything out right but it is when incidents like this that the little conceptions they have had since birth or what they assume we are like based off of media starts playing into how they act...But now, we are kind of pushed to the forefront, Asians cannot really hide if we think about it, because if you wear a mask, people are going to assume you have it and are running away, and if you don’t wear a mask, people are also going to assume you have it and you are trying to infect other people. There is literally no way you can win.
What can we do as individuals to help others around us to understand the situation and possibly help mediate these aggressive and negative sentiments?
First thing I think should be done is we need to detach the label of coronavirus from just Asians, because people think that only Asians have it and that if I am not Asian and it is not going to affect me. But people forget that it is not a scary time just for Asians, but it is also a scary time for people who live with their families, and they don’t know if they can go back because they might pass it onto, maybe their grandparents they live with. It is a scary time for people who have severe medical conditions, who don’t have good immune systems, who need these medical equipment that are being bought out or stocked or people who don’t need them are buying them so that they can’t get access to the life saving equipment. It is a scary time for international students who have been landlocked in their country, or students who are relying on exams this year to get certain job offers. It is just a sucky time for everyone.
I would want people to stop thinking about how it is affecting you but think about how it is affecting other people because I think another big part of it is privilege…think firstly about what privileges you have and realise it might be bad for you but it can be worse for other people. But at the same time, be kind to everyone, realise that it is not just a you problem, it is affecting everyone, Asian or not. That is not to minimise the horrors that Asians are going through but I am just simply asking people, whether related to the coronavirus or not, we are all born with so many privileges. No matter how bad it is, please realise your privileges and use them to speak out. Take care of yourself, but more importantly, take care of yourself in relation to others.
Editor's note: assessing the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on mental health and wellbeing
Just from the conversation with Yoojin, we’ve drawn from it a lot of the social anxieties and frustrations many individuals our age are having during this challenging time. The abrupt end to the university term/academic year has caused massive disruptions for students across all faculties and cohorts. Not to mention those that have had to pack up their lives within a few days and travel half the world to get back to their home countries. The concentrations and levels of anxiety expressed on UCLove have never been seen in such quantities and our concern goes out to those who are struggling through these challenging times.
The interview above was conducted a few days before university closure whereby many of our friends and peers around us were engulfed by waves of chaos and panic. Not to dismiss the importance of physical health and taking the necessary precautions against contracting COVID-19, but what we feel has been greatly neglected during this initial stage was that of an individual's mental health.
Humans are social animals; I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you otherwise. And due to our social nature, many of us thrive and rely on intimacy and social contact. For many people, the ecosystem which we have built for ourselves relies on the input and presence of friends and peers. Whilst going home entails, for some, better healthcare, provision of food and accommodation, reunification with family and pets. The prospect of going home and spending the remaining 6 months at home, and potentially without our ecosystem of support, during this climate of uncertainty is enough to trigger a cascade of anxiety related issues. You simply cannot blame someone who may be straight-passing at home to disguise their fear of social-distancing by creating their own facade of reluctance to go home. And fear, for whatever reason it might be, is enough to tip someone into losing control, panicking and suppressed hysteria.
We do not intend to single out particular groups of people but simply want to raise awareness around the fact that the impacts of coronavirus are for everyone. If you are an individual who for personal/impersonal reasons prefer/have been forced to stay, know that you are not the only one feeling that way. And if you are an individual who has been lucky enough in that you are currently in a situation where you are safe, healthy and overall content, but cannot fathom why someone has made certain decisions or taken certain actions, do not take differences in attitudes and values between you and others as an opportunity for debate. Be respectful of others decisions and perspectives and be mindful that others situations may not be the same as yours. We don’t and cannot all expect total empathy and understanding from our peers but as previously aforementioned by Yoojin, be aware of your privileges and ‘take care of yourself in relation to others’.
Transcriptor: Aiden Chan
Editor: Angela Zhou