The two pandemics: COVID-19 and Bigotry (Part 1 of 2)

Over the course of the past month in this country, awareness around the COVID 19 pandemic has grown, unfortunately so has the misinformation and bigotry around the virus. The people bearing the brunt of the wholly ignorant racism, bigotry, and hate has been the Asian American community. This rise is shameful behavior was covered by the Huffington post in a recent article. The most shocking part to the participants of our class, is the sad truth, these incidents are taking place in the Bay Area. The article cites one story that took place on a BART train. An older Filipino couple were riding back to their home in Hayward, from their remittance business in San Francisco, when they began to be showered with insults. “All of a sudden another passenger yelled at them, telling them to go back to their country,” their daughter told the reporter that “The person called my Filipino mother a ‘Chinese Coronavirus bitch’ and that both of my parents are ‘bearers of the virus.’” Lets get past the fact that these clearly ignorant people, mistook people of Filipino heritage for Chinese people, and address a bigger concern.
This incident is just one of many taking place every day across our country, but the fact its taking place in my backyard is infuriating to me. Asian Americans literally built much of the Bay Area and the state of California with their hands. The shocking amount of wealth and power of our region would not be a reality without substantial contributions from the Asian American community. It is in times of great concern, and risk to personal safety when one must stand up against wrong. This is exactly one of those times, where we must speak out, and challenge ignorant and racist points of view. I end with a commonly misused quote, originally from Hillel, a Rabbi and Jewish Scholar.

“If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when?”