A New “Yellow Peril”
Summer 2020
I came to American high school in 2013 to study. Because of the freshness and strangeness of just coming to the United States, I did not allow me too much contact with Americans and society. When I started my college education, I began to enter the diverse culture of America. When I step into society, I began to discover some problems, which is many Americans do not like or even discriminate against Asians.
When I was in the United States at the beginning, I did not realize these problems because the United States in my mind was an immigrant country. The formation of the United States is a colony of people from other countries. I think that such a free state should not exclude foreigners. However, I am wrong with it. My experience in high school, work, and society makes me think about one problem which is " Is it really matter where I am from?"
It is a story from my high school. When I attended high school in the first year, the most question I heard is “where are you from?” At the beginning when I heard the question, I will answer them and think about they want to know me because they are friendly. Later, I find some small detail from it. Some people seem like not happy to close with me after they heard my answer. My feeling is why they want to ask me where I am from and do not want to close with after getting the answer. So, I start to make friends with those people who like me, but the question is never to leave my mind.
I figure out the answer after I graduate from high school. It was a story when I experienced it at the family hospital. After I take the vaccine and walking to the outside, I heard an American, who seems like a high school student, talking on the phone with his mother loud. First, I want to state that I am not purposely listening to what they are talking about. The boy was talking loudly, and he just stood near me. He said to his mother, " I am not going to this hospital. There are a lot of Asian people there, and I am scared of it." His words make me feel angry and uncomfortable because it is such races. I want to discuss with him what he said because everyone in the hospital is for health care. What is the point that he needs to scare with? After back home, his words play in my mind over and over again. Then, I find a deeper result as it is an issue left over from history.
According to the article Asian American History, we know that the first group of Asian people arrive in America is Chinese. However, Chinese people did not get respect because American white people still believe they are the best in the 19th century. In 1952, Chinese people get accepted to become American citizens. The second group of Asian people arrives in America is Japanese. They have the same position as Chinese people in the 1800s. However, the Japanese start the Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War and win. It did not bring respect to Japanese in American rather than fear. After the Japanese lose the war, many Japanese people and North Korean people arrive in American. Then it makes Americans give Asian people a name as "Yellow Peril." Just like the article said "The “Yellow Peril” stereotyped all Asians, not just the Japanese, as a threat both at home and abroad." It makes all Asian people get mistreatment and discrimination.
In other words, the subconscious rejection of Asians in American has brought discrimination against Asians. These are not just pure clan discrimination, xenophobia and white supremacy still exist in American thinking. Like the article Coronavirus fears show how' model minority' Asian Americans become the yellow peril' write by Matthew Lee said: "Falsely expecting all Asian Americans to be submissive, highly educated, and wealthy, is dangerous as we are told to prepare for COVID-19, especially since adequate preparation demands resources and privilege"(Lee 11). The xenophobia and white supremacy will show up when Americans face a big problem and believe the problem is caused by other races. Just like the problem in the world which is COVID-19.
COVID-19 which is the pandemic in the world, which also names as "Chinese virus". People named COVID-19 as the Chinese virus because the first case find in China Wuhan. On the superficial view, the Chinese deserve the blame because China screwed up. The most important thing is China did not control the virus immediately after they find the first case. Many citizens of China find the virus happens in Wuhan, and they afraid of it. They want to find safe places to avoid the virus close to them. so they start taking the airline to leave China. They were not tested to prove that they were safe, so the virus began to occur all over the world. As a Chinese, I understand we .
The problem led Chinese people and Asian Americans are in danger in America. Like Sabrina Tavernise and Richard A. Oppel Jr. wrote in Spit On, Yelled At, Attacked: Chinese-Americans Fear for Their Safety. "As bigots blame them for the coronavirus and President Trump labels it the “Chinese virus,” many Chinese-Americans say they are terrified of what could come next (Tavernise & Oppel 1)". When the president of America said the word " Chinese Virus”, I know the position of Asian in American will be blamed. I know that Americans will not treat Chinese people calmly. I know other Asian people will try to announce to everyone they are not Chinese. Well, I know we deserve it. However, just some people who want to live away from the virus and they do not know they have close to someone already have it. We can name them as bad people but is not all Chinese people bad. Many Chinese people have live-in American for many years, and they should not deserve it because they are the victim too.
Of course, these are not the more profound meaning for the "Chinese Virus." I list two parts for the deeper meaning which are race and habit. First one is race, Carl Abbott notices that "Historian James Mohr, author of the 2004 book Plague and Fire: Battling Black Death and the 1900 Burning of Honolulu’s Chinatown, described how one Honolulu resident spoke for many when she optimistically wrote that “plague seldom attacks clean white people.” (Abbott 4) in the article, The ‘Chinese Flu’ Is Part of a Long History of Racializing Disease. The most important sentence is "plague seldom attacks clean white people."This sentence is full of racist ideas. Americans think that white Americans are clean. They will not contract the plague because their living environment and themselves are clean. This makes it easy for Americans to think if they have infectious diseases that appear in the United States are brought about by foreign races because American whites are very clean and will not be of origin. The second point, habit means people usually will blame the race where the first case found at. Like the word "blaming victims and increased hostility toward minorities had been hallmarks of health-related panics since ancient times" (Abbott 7). In history, we can find people will blame the race where the virus comes from. Whenever a virus appears, people will attribute the responsibility to the race that first appeared. This is a habit of people; people will point mistakes to other people. This makes them feel superior and blaming the mistakes on other races can help them shift their fear of the virus. So, who should we blame to?
I think the people who really should be blamed are those who don't take the virus seriously. First, the government should pay some responsibilities. It's like Julian E. Barnes wrote in Seen What Was Coming: Behind Trump's Failure on the virus his instincts led to a halting response, "An examination reveals the president was warned about the potential for a pandemic, but that internal division, lack of planning and his faith in He Could Have." (Barnes1) The emergence of the epidemic is not terrible. The terrible thing is that people do not pay attention to the terror of the virus. If the government can make an alert and quarantine plan earlier, I believe that so many people will not be infected with the virus. This blame is not just for the US government; it is for the governments of all countries. The Chinese government did not immediately block the cities where the virus appeared to allow the virus to spread. The US government did not take quarantine measures the first time but chose to be gentle and believe that citizens can protect themselves. These are the reasons for the spread of the virus.
The second one I want to be responsible for is the American medical system. As we all know, medical expenses in the United States have always been expensive. If intensive care is needed during the virus, the final bill will be a huge number. In America's extreme neoliberal healthcare system is putting the country at risk written by Adam Gaffney, Adam Gaffney notices us that there are 30 million Americans who are uninsured. The absence of insurance in the United States means that there is no way to receive treatment in the hospital. If there is no way to receive treatment in the hospital, there will only be two situations which are dead or spread. This kind of medical system can only find ways to reduce the economic loss of the hospital in the face of the virus, but it cannot help the country control and treat the virus. The absence of insurance in the United States means that there is no way to receive treatment in the hospital. If there is no way to receive treatment in the hospital, there will only be two situations which are dead or spread. This kind of medical system can only find ways to reduce the economic loss of the hospital in the face of the virus, but it cannot help the country control and treat the virus. Therefore, what the medical system shows in the face of the virus is a health service that has no effect, as the New York Times said, "This is not a healthcare system – it is atomized chaos."
So what can we do to make the racial barriers narrow or disappear? In general, the main obstacles to solving racism are xenophobia, white supremacy, human deep-rooted bad habits, and public opinion on social media. For the xenophobia and white supremacy, I think the best way to avoid the racial problem is to improve self-awareness. People must know other races are not bad like what they think or what they heard from other people. I believe the most helpful ethical principle is fairness. People must treat other people with fairness. we cannot say this race's people are bad, and this race's people are good. Every country or race has bad people and good people. We cannot judge people by what races they are. The best way to solve problems is to face problems. people can communicate with other race's people for better understanding. The problem has existed for a long time, and people still cannot solve it. Every time when there is some racial problem, violence will happen in society. Everyone must know solving the problem is for a better and peaceful country.
For human deep-rooted bad habits, I think this is the hardest part to solve. This situation is not unique to Americans. Everyone has humanity bad habits. This means everyone will try to push the responsibility away because it makes them feel better. I think the only way can control is education. The reason I say control rather than solve is people cannot solve humanity's bad habits. The acquired education is to change the bad roots of human beings, but the effect will not be too obvious. It can only hide this kind of bad roots deeper. Inferiority cannot be changed, it can only be hidden or suppressed restrained
For the public opinion on social media, the easier way is control by multiple parties. Every publish should review by at least two companies to get approval to publish. I think social media is the most helpful part of helping the racial problem. Social media spread messages that get people to look at the superficial layers. For example, many media are making the word " Chinese Virus" from president. This kind of news easily takes away the trend of public opinion. People will guess and imagine based on the keywords that appear in the news. This makes it difficult to alleviate the race problem.
Back to the racial problem, I think Chinese, Asian or even Africa American is not the problem in this diverse country. Like everyone who comes to America, we are all people who have the American dream. We hope to integrate into this society and be respected. We can solve problems together instead of being blamed and discriminated against. Why every American should value and think about themselves because the United States is a country established by immigrants. People of every race and country play an important role in the diverse society of the United States. When facing a virus, I want help instead of blame. Although it is difficult for us to accept each other with xenophobia, only after accepting each other then we can better fight the virus or future crises. This is not only for us, Chinese people, but these principles also apply to every race and country that is discriminated against in the United States. Not every country is a hundred percent good people, and not every country is a hundred percent bad people. Only when we accept each other, then we make America progress.
Work Cited
Abbott, C. (2020, March 17). When Racism and Disease Spread Together. Retrieved August 07, 2020.
Asian American History. (2006). Retrieved August 07, 2020, from https://jacl.org/asian-american-history/
Gaffney, A. (2020, March 21). America's extreme neoliberal healthcare system is putting the country at risk | Adam Gaffney. Retrieved August 07, 2020.
Lee, M., & Researcher, H. (2020, March 12). Coronavirus fears show how 'model minority' Asian Americans become the 'yellow peril'. Retrieved August 07, 2020.
Lipton, E., Sanger, D., Haberman, M., & Barnes, J. E. (2020, April 11). He Could Have Seen What Was Coming: Behind Trump's Failure on the Virus. Retrieved August 07, 2020.
Tavernise, S., & Oppel, R. (2020, March 23). Spit On, Yelled At, Attacked: Chinese-Americans Fear for Their Safety. Retrieved August 07, 2020.