Coronavirus Causes Racial Tensions
The fear of the coronavirus has come to college campuses, and it’s brought racism with it.
On Feb. 1, Susan Popko, associate provost for International Programs, sent an email to the Santa Clara student community reminding students to treat everyone with respect.
“We have heard from some students that they have faced microaggressions and have felt targeted because they are of Asian ancestry,” Popko stated in the email. “This is bigotry and it goes against Santa Clara’s deeply-held values as a multicultural, international, welcoming and inclusive community.”
These instances were brought to Popko’s attention by different students, faculty and staff members. Some were direct microaggressions and some were attitudes that were being expressed through questions and fears.
“For example, someone saying, ‘Gosh, do we systematically screen all of the Chinese students when they return back from winter break and come to campus?’” Popko said. “This isn’t about race. It’s about location.”
Microaggressions such as the one Popko mentioned have been noted on college campuses across the country for their racist and anti-Chinese sentiments.
According to The New York Times, University of Houston student Charles Bui noted that he’d personally seen others express relief after they stepped off of the elevator that he was riding on.
At Cornell University, one student felt the need to lie to his friends that he traveled to California over winter break when he actually traveled to China.
This also isn’t the first time people of color have been the targets of racist comments in the midst of a health epidemic.
“When [epidemics] tend to come from a place where people are of a different race, there are documented and historic examples of this kind of heightened level of fear than what it would be if this was coming from France,” Popko said.
In 2009, Latinos became the targets of xenophobia in the midst of the H1N1 swine flu outbreak. The same occurred to those of African descent in the 2014 Ebola outbreak.
There are only 12 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the U.S. and the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention states the risk to the American public is low.
As Popko stated, we must continue to respect those who are experiencing an immense amount of stress due to the outbreak.
“The concern of course is our Chinese students on the other hand experiencing a terrifying situation,” said Popko. “We have students whose families are being impacted in China and they don’t know when they’ll see them again.”
Associated Press contributed reporting. Contact Kyle de la Fuente at kdelafuente@scu.edu or Emma Pollans at epollans@scu.edu.