If I see one more racist tweet against Chinese people because of the coronavirus I’m going to cancel the whole of Australia because quite frankly, I’ve had enough.

From blaming Chinese people by inferring that they’re unhygienic and uncivilised to demanding that we lock them all up and close our borders to Asia, the anti-Chinese/anti-Asian hysteria in Australian media around the coronavirus is quite frankly, disgusting.

Don’t Act Like Chinese People Somehow Deserve The Virus

For some reason, people straight up think it’s okay to blame the entire Chinese community for the coronavirus because they apparently just eat “bat soup and dogs” all day. Just when you think white Twittersphere can’t get any more racist, tweets like this one pop up:

maybe now Chinese people will actually stop eating shit like bat soup & dogs 🙄 #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/PuKXAe7jZA — lily (@_lxlyevie) January 27, 2020

It’s straight up racist to even assume that all Chinese people are eating dogs/bats, let alone imply that literally anyone deserves an illness because of their racial identity? Why do we have to say this in 2020?

Some of y’all need to cool it with the Coronavirus memes. I know memes are cool and funny and all, but do you know how goddamn racist you look making jokes about Asian people getting infected because they eat dog or “bat soup” or whatever? 🙄🙄🙄 #coronavirus — Travis “The Horny Historian” 🏺 (@GreenMonkey2121) January 28, 2020

It’s funny how many racist white people are blaming Chinese people for “spreading disease” when white colonisers destroyed countless ethnic and Indigenous communities with disease they carried from Europe.

You’re Way More Likely To Die From Influenza Than You Are To Contract Coronavirus

lot of white vegans On Here talking abt how the chinese are evil for how they eat animals. y’all invented the atlantic slave trade — giabuchi (@jaboukie) January 26, 2020

The hysteria around the coronavirus just screams ‘othering’ and racism. Influenza kills up to 64 thousand people every year in America. There are only a couple thousand cases of Coronavirus in the entire globe, and less than 100 of those have been fatal. Yet, there is no regard or fear for Influenza. Why? Because you can’t blame an ethnic minority for it.

Of course, western media doesn’t care that this disease has nothing to do with Chinese behaviour. Australia just loves to whip up anti-Chinese frenzies.

We see this in every case of the political sphere, be it immigration (“they’re stealing our jobs“), technology (“they’re stealing our data“), buying property (“they’re stealing our housing“), or overpopulation (“they’re a burden to our infrastructure/health care system“). It seems Australia is just obsessed with creating anti-Chinese sentiment among it’s population, and it’s clearly working.

The Sinophobia that we’re witnessing in response to the #coronavirus and China’s response shouldn’t take anyone by surprise. The trope of the dirty, incapable ch*nk has long been central to the otherizing of the “Orient” that began with the Page, Exclusion Acts in the late 1800s. — 𝗔𝗹𝘁𝗼𝗻 𝗪𝗮𝗻𝗴 (@altonwang) January 27, 2020

Just today, a hoax coronavirus alert went around advising people to avoid suburbs in Queensland that have high Chinese populations.

Um, Yes, Wanting To Ban An Entire Racial Group From Your Country Is Racist

The most common racist rallying point around coronavirus at the moment is the call to close our borders and lock Chinese people out – a call that is made indiscriminately, as if we don;t have Australians that are also Chinese, and a call that was only recently made about Muslims, and countless other minorities that were attacked before them. I mean, this racist ideology is still employed to keep refugees locked up in offshore detention for the simple crime of existing as ethnic people (“it only takes one of them to be a terrorist“).

Anyone with even a shred of decency would have some concern and empathy for cities affected by Coronavirus outbreaks, where people are being forced into isolation without adequate treatment or resources. Instead, everyone is suggesting different ways to destroy Asians.

The next time you think about making a joke about Chinese people bringing coronavirus unto themselves, or sharing a meme where you’re going to shoot up Asian people that make eye contact with you, or talk about how you think we should ban all Chinese immigration, think again. Because people like me are watching, and we can see just how deplorably racist and dangerous your words are.

Image Sources: Twitter @PDChina, @SpottedTent, @altonwang, @jaboukie, @_lxlyevie