If nothing else major happened this week, the World Health Organization declared coronavirus an international emergency on Thursday. News of the virus began to appear earlier this week, having originated in Wuhan, China. Since then over 300 people have died in China and the disease has managed to make its way into other countries. Nearly 12,000 infections have been reported since then. Coronavirus is particularly dangerous because of its air-borne nature, which leaves victims unaware that they’ve been infected until days later when they’ve already interacted with so many more people to whom they could have spread the disease. I believe the aspect of how quickly and unknowingly it spreads scares people the most, as a person will appear healthy until several days later. Coronavirus has not only brought about the deaths of hundreds of people but it has resummoned prejudice and xenophobia.
Just by scrolling through my social media feed, I have seen several coronavirus memes, often referring to the beer brand Corona or holding Chinese people responsible for this world epidemic. This is an international emergency where hundreds of people have already died. These memes about coronavirus screamed insensitivity to the people suffering from the disease or of whom have lost family members. Furthermore, some of these memes accomplish nothing other than placing blame upon the Chinese when mankind should be focusing on finding cures and keeping noninfected people safe.
I was particularly shaken by a conversation I overheard at the downtown Andover Starbucks on Wednesday between two men sitting by the window. At that hour on Wednesday afternoon, I was the only Asian in Starbucks but not the only student from Andover. While I was waiting for my drink, I overheard one of the men spontaneously begin talking to the other about the diversity of Andover’s student body. May I gently remind you that I was not the first Andover student at Starbucks. He said something to the effect of how diverse Andover is and how we have a lot of people coming from all over the world, in particular, China. I saw the two men avert their eyes when they caught me glance at them. Shortly after, they left.
While they never explicitly directed any commentary towards me, at the moment it was quite obvious that the way I looked had sparked this random discussion topic about Andover’s diversity. This moment has stuck with me because until now, I’ve never actually ever felt my physical presence alienate the security of someone else. I’ve also never walked into a room where people indirectly called me out because of preconceived notions on the basis of how I look.
Looking back at the situation serves as a reminder of our society’s continued prejudices and biases towards immigrants on the basis of physical appearance. The fact remains that preconceived notions will always prevail to exist and implicit bias isn’t easily dismantled. I cannot seem to locate the quote in my history book of which this scenario reminded me, so I will share a newer quote whose message echoes something to a similar effect:
“Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.” -Paulo Coelho
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