“Everyone knows Chinese people are disgusting.” “They’ll eat any type of animal.” “They’re dirty.” That’s what my classmate said, just days after the Coronavirus outbreak started in the United States. It felt like a stab to my chest. I’m Chinese-American, and this is someone that I’ve gone to school with for almost three years, who I consider a friend. But it’s no wonder that she feels this way. “An obscure virus arising from a meat market in eastern China.” As the Coronavirus spreads, there’s another virus spreading that we need to be talking about. “A woman who’s Asian says she was punched by another woman in midtown Manhattan and she accused her of having the Covid-19 virus.” “I don’t want him [inaudible] me. Tell him to move.” Young Asian-Americans like me are feeling hate infect every part of our lives. “And I’d like to just ask the Chinese for a formal apology.” Not only do we have to be afraid about our health. But we have to be afraid about being ourselves. Class basically just started. One of the girls said all Chinese people were disgusting. And so I literally like raised my hand up and was like “I’m Chinese.” She didn’t even say sorry. She didn’t. She just like blew past it I guess. And then she like kept going on about it. I never knew it would happen to me, especially at this school. Good morning. Morning. Yeah, basically this Chinese restaurant was like texting their customers saying none of our staff have been to China. We have no contact with the Coronavirus. Please like like, come back to us. And people were like making fun of it. There are thousands and thousands of cases in Italy. But no one’s boycotting Olive Garden. No seriously like, no one is boycotting a mom and pop’s pizza place. Like it’s the same thing. Historically, pandemics have stoked xenophobia. In the 19th century, people spread rumors that Irish immigrants carried cholera, and tuberculosis was known as the “Jewish disease.” In 1900, when a Chinese man supposedly died of the plague in San Francisco, Chinatown residents were forcibly quarantined by police, while white residents were allowed to leave the area. It seems like since the start of the Coronavirus outbreak schools have been a Petri dish for racism. It’s dangerous to normalize behavior like this for people my age. So you just spoke with the other student. So can you tell me what happened? She understood my frustration and anger. They didn’t really mean to say that. And they were actually making a generalization. And so she apologized to me basically. And I really appreciated it. Coronavirus may have originated in China. But the disease doesn’t discriminate in the way that people do. It’s extremely important that people have accurate information on how to stay safe. So we can kill this virus without spreading another one.