Mai Schubert
Most summers, my family has flown to Minnesota. This summer, because of COVID-19 and the fear of being in proximity of others, we decided that we would road trip it instead.
I wasn’t worried about getting infected with the disease. I was worried that we were traveling through four states that are more diverse than Seattle and what people might say about me, a person of Asian descent, wearing a mask.
"I was worried that we were traveling through four states that are more diverse than Seattle and what people might say about me, a person of Asian descent, wearing a mask."
Assumptions that people of Asian descent have carried diseases have been around for hundreds of years. This racist idea has seen a strong normalization by President Trump, as he calls COVID-19 “China Virus” and “China Plague.”
This has not been the only time the U.S. has blamed other countries and certain ethnicities of people for a disease. The U.S. blamed the Swine Flu on Latinex immigrants, Ebola on anyone of African descent, and the 1918 Flu pandemic on Spain, nicknaming it the “Spanish Flu,” even though the first case was in a military base in Kansas, U.S..
People need to feel comfortable in our country, a country of immigrants. We need to show that everyone has a home here where they are loved and appreciated, and that won’t happen if we continue to blame people of certain race or ethnicities for diseases that can affect anyone. We need to call attention to the injustice of this time. We need to say it loud enough so that no one can ignore it.