Just when we thought we couldn’t get any more stupid, when we believed a crisis such as COVID-19 would bring out the best in us, there are still those out there to prove us wrong.
Not only are people still congregating in open areas, allowing their children to play with each other oblivious to or just not caring if they might have the virus – before being symptomatic – thereby infecting others, but the inner racist is rearing its ugly head across the country.
From the top down we are blaming a country and culture for what is a blameless catastrophe. China didn’t create the virus nor did it purposely spread it. Perhaps it could have handled things better but the United States is in no position to point fingers as it has yet to handle it well. When there is more concern about political ratings than the lives of fellow countrymen, calling it a “Chinese virus” can only be to rally the base, incite anger and hope that misdirection will take the heat and spotlight off of where it belongs. This is not the first that has been named by place of origin but somehow we had hoped we were better than that now.
But when that racism trickles down locally, it is unconscionable. Nationwide people of Asian descent have been harangued, assaulted, spit on and verbally abused. At colleges and boarding schools, Asian students are being attacked on social media for being responsible for the spread of the virus in the area. Students who have been here since August/September. Students who have no option but to stay, isolated at school, as they have no way home. Students who have done nothing but sought a decent education … an American education.
But they are an easy target … and cowards and bullies always pick easy targets.
Our students from abroad will now take home a hurt and knowledge of what America has been to them and, thanks to a few ignorant, racist bullies, we have all been hurt by that.
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