“I’d Like to Just Ask the Chinese for a Formal Apology” : The Situation of Asian Americans in the Midst of COVID-19 Pandemic
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| Year of publication | 2020 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
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| Description | Being accused of disease transmitting has historically been an unpleasantly frequent part of American immigrants’ lives. The alleged transmissions were popularly connected to their ethnicity and country of origin and thus whole immigrant communities were ostracized and abused without a necessary evidence of such connection. While this hurtful treatment was given to various groups throughout the history of the United States, it is still present towards some communities. This paper explores a very recent example of this phenomenon of xenophobia, race-based abuse of Asian Americans related to the current spread of COVID-19, and contextualizes it within the historical maltreatment of this minority, most famously the Yellow Peril trope. Also, it puts the position of Asian Americans into the frame of binary thinking, which has been increasingly present in current social debates and discussions. Consequently, the paper outlines emerging approaches and solutions of Asian Americans towards the situation, such as vlogging and video activism, multiracial movements, official news’ reports, artivism, etc. |
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