Sinophobic Stigma Going Viral: Addressing the Social Impact of COVID-19 in a Globalized World

Abstract

This article critically examines the recent literature on stigma that addresses the overspread association among the COVID-19 pandemic and racial and ethnic groups (i.e., mainland Chinese and East Asian populations) assumed to be the source of the virus. The analysis begins by reviewing the way in which infectious diseases have historically been associated with developing countries and their citizens, which, in turn, are supposed to become prime vectors of contagion. The latter extends to the current labeling of COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus,” that—along with a number of other terms—has fueled race-based stigma against Asian groups in the United States and overseas. This review further discusses the limitations of current COVID-19 antistigma initiatives that mostly focus on individual-based education campaigns as opposed to multisectorial programs informed by human rights and intersectional perspectives. Finally, the article ends with a call to the international public health community toward addressing the most recent outbreak of stigma, one that has revealed the enormous impact of words in amplifying racial bias against particular minority populations in the developed world. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print March 18, 2021: e1–e5. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306201 )

Pervasive systemic drivers underpin COVID-19 vulnerabilities in migrants

“…In the context of a pandemic, a group of people is labelled, stereotyped, discriminated against, treated separately, and/or experience loss of status because of a perceived link with the disease [ 40 ]. During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, with growing news that the first case was reported in Wuhan, China; racist vitriol and xenophobic incidents became pervasive globally especially towards people of Asian descent [ 41 ]. These xenophobic reactions included social avoidance and being confronted concerning COVID-19 [ 42 ].…”

“Divide, Divert, & Conquer” Deconstructing the Presidential Framing of White Supremacy in the COVID-19 Era

“…For instance, Asians and Latinos should know that the forever foreigner status ascribed to their groups has been used skillfully to diminish their interests and rights as Americans. Although East Asians have been particularly singled out here, Americans from every part of Asia have been touched by anti-Asian hate (Louie 2021;Viladrich 2021). Blacks, whites, and Native Americans must be part of this important dialogue as well, just as Asians and Latinos have to join the conversations about anti-Blackness and how it intersects and differs from the experiences of their own racial/ethnic groups.…”

“…More recently, Trump's rhetoric and policies to exclude travelers from Middle Eastern nations, based on the idea that Muslims are terrorists, have been associated with hate violence against South Asian, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, Middle Eastern, and Arab communities (Modhi 2018). In all these cases, the powerful external threat, rooted in racist nativism, led to the denial of rights and hate crimes against Asian Americans, who ended up becoming stigmatized as forever foreigners on the soil of their adopted or birth country over several generations (Louie 2020b;Viladrich 2021).…”

“…Our study reveals how all of this happened, with a focus on the divisive and diversionary aspects of the strategy, along with what we can do to prevent it from happening again. A deeper understanding of Trump's three-fold strategy (divide, divert, and conquer) is key to understanding how the discursive stigmatization of particular ethnic/racial groups translates into the symbolic and political violence perpetrated against those groups during pandemic times (Viladrich 2021). Furthermore, and in order to counter white supremacy, we need to pay more attention to how different racisms play out for different populations.…”

Sinophobia during the Covid-19 Pandemic: Identity, Belonging, and International Politics

“…Chinese have been frequently called to be “dirty”, “disease-ridden”, and bat-eating (Li, 2020 ; Schild et al, 2020 ; Jeung et al, 2020 ). These claims tap into a century-old stereotyping practice that associates particular racialized groups with disease (Trumper & Phillips, 1997 ; Kim & Shah, 2020 ; Viladrich, 2021 ). In one of the most well-known events, one thousand Jews were burned alive for having allegedly spread pestilence by poisoning the wells (Snowden, 2019 ).…”