Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The Covid-19 pandemic has not only left health problems but also social problems. A new problem that has arisen after this pandemic is the high anti-Asian sentiment in several countries.
Asian citizens such as citizens of Chinese, Japanese and Indonesian descent have become targets of racism and violence. The perpetrators of this act of racism assume that Asians are the source of the transmission of Covid-19, considering that the virus first appeared in Wuhan.
According to Stop AAPI Hate, an organization that tracks incidents of hate and discrimination against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, there were at least 500 incidents of discrimination in the first two months of this year in the United States (US). If you look at the past year, from March 2020 to February 2021 , the figure reached 3,795 reports.
The majority of reports noted that 68% were verbal abuse. While 11% involve physical attacks. The peak occurred in the shooting at an Asian spa in Atlanta that killed 8 people in March.
In fact, cases of racism followed by attacks do not only occur in the US, but also in several other countries in the world. Here’s the list:
1. France
In the country where the Eiffel Tower is located, several cases of discrimination against the Asian community have been reported. A number of reports indicate a significant increase in harassment and violent attacks against people hailing from certain regions of Asia.
Some children of Asian descent such as China, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan are reported to have been ostracized and ridiculed by their friends at Paris high school. This is because of their ethnic origins.
Chinese, Thai, Cambodian and Japanese restaurants have reported declining customers. The scale of decline ranges from 30 to 50%.
2. Germany.
Various incidents of racism and discrimination against people of Asian descent in Germany have been reported by the news media. The weekly magazine Der Spiegel once published a controversial cover that some blamed on China for the outbreak and fueled Anti-Asian hatred or xenophobia.
The Chinese Embassy in Berlin has acknowledged an increase in cases of hostility towards its citizens since the outbreak. On February 1, 2020, a 23-year-old Chinese national in Berlin reportedly received racist insults and was subsequently beaten by two unidentified assailants, in an incident classified by police as “xenophobic”.
A Chinese student from Chengdu living in Berlin was given two weeks’ notice to leave his rented apartment. Its owner is a German actress Gabrielle Scharnitzky.
“I have to protect myself from the possible danger of infection by someone returning from a virus-contaminated area, entering and leaving my home and thereby endangering my health and the health of my visitors,” Scharnitzky said at the time.
3. Holland
The Netherlands also recorded several Anti-Asian cases. The most cases were found in several comment fields in posts about the corona virus.
On February 8, 2020, a group of Chinese students living in the Wageningen University student dormitory discovered that their floors had been tampered with. Damage included a torn Chinese flag from the student’s door and ripped and vandalized walls with insults to English.
Dutch police are investigating the incident. But so far no suspects have been identified.
On February 10, 2020, a 65-year-old Dutch man of Chinese descent was kicked off his bicycle in Amsterdam by two young men. One of the perpetrators recorded the incident and uploaded it to his Snapchat story.
He even belittled the Asian man by saying “don’t worry, it’s a Chinese man”. But soon he finally turned himself in to the police after being the target of bullying by netizens.
4. Australia
There are increasing reports of members of the Chinese-Australian and Asian-Australian communities being subjected to verbal and racist insults.
On March 20, 2020, a mask-wearing student in Hobart, Tasmania was told, “You catch the virus” and “go back to your country” before being punched causing a bruised eye and broken glasses. The reason for the attack was partly due to the cultural differences in the use of masks in Eastern and Western cultures.
Chinese restaurants and establishments in Sydney and Melbourne have also seen dramatic business declines, with trade declining by more than 70%.
According to the online Ipsos MORI poll, 23% of Australian respondents would consider in the future avoiding people from China to protect themselves from the coronavirus. Additionally a survey by the Australian National University showed that 84.5% of Asian-Australians experienced at least one instance of discrimination between January and October 2020.
5. India.
Not only in the Western world, in India Anti-Asian and Anti-Oriental sentiments are also blowing strongly. A survey conducted by The Takshashila Institution found that 52.8% of Indian respondents felt that terms like “China Virus” and “Pandemic Made in China” were not racist.
Not only that, the President of the State unit of the ruling Bharatiya Janata party or BJP in West Bengal, Dilip Ghosh, once stated that China had “destroyed nature” and “that is why God is taking revenge against them.” The statements were later denounced by the Chinese consulate in Kolkata, calling them “false.”
(tps/tps)
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