Nothing about what’s happened to Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders during the coronavirus pandemic surprises Russell Jeung. They’ve been spat on, called racist names, harassed in grocery stores, and violently attacked. Jeung, co-founder of the advocacy coalition STOP AAPI Hate, says this is what happens when one of the most powerful people in the world — the president of the United States — uses racist messaging to discuss a global respiratory pandemic.
“The term ‘Chinese virus’ did two things,” he says, referring to the term Trump adopted at the pandemic’s outset. “It racialized the virus, so it wasn’t biological, it’s a Chinese virus. And then it stigmatized the people, because Chinese people were the disease carriers. It’s deadly because people make automatic assumptions and get triggered when they see Asians. They racially profile us and go into fight-or-flight mode…they attack us, they push our grandparents…The stigmatization of Asians has had disastrous consequences.”
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Source: When you become the target of racist disinformation | Mashable