'They look at me and think I'm some kind of virus': What it's like to be Asian during the coronavirus pandemic

Kristine Phillips | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Coronavirus: What's spreading faster than COVID-19 As coronavirus spreads across the U.S., Asian Americans share how racism and microaggressions have, too.

Carl Chan was shopping at the San Francisco Premium Outlets when he covered his mouth to cough a little. A couple standing about 20 to 30 feet away from him stared in alarm. The woman turned and ran away.

Another time, he was walking down an Oakland street with a group of people when someone started coughing. It wasn’t Chan, but people turned around, glared at him and covered their mouth.

The dirty looks happened weeks ago, before California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered the state's 40 million residents to stay at home. Before President Donald Trump referred to the deadly COVID-19 as the "Chinese virus." Before the coronavirus pandemic sent the country’s economy into a tailspin. And before it killed hundreds of Americans and infected thousands more.

“They look at me and think I’m some kind of virus,” said Chan, president of the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce.

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Across the U.S., Asian Americans have become the target of xenophobic and bigoted attacks as the pandemic wreaks havoc in American society. Experts said the scapegoating is fueled by harmful rhetoric from politicians, including the president, who later called for the protection of Asian Americans from xenophobic attacks after repeatedly calling COVID-19 the "Chinese virus."

In recent months, people of Asian descent – not just Chinese Americans – have been shunned, verbally abused, named-called, coughed and spat on, even physically assaulted, said Russell Jeung, chair of the Asian American Studies Department at San Francisco State University who’s been studying bias-related incidents against Asian Americans during the coronavirus epidemic.

The scapegoating is reminiscent of old racist tropes that led to discriminatory policies against Asian immigrants in the United States – from the quarantining of San Francisco’s Chinatown during the bubonic plague of the 1900s, to the rounding up of Japanese Americans in internment camps during World War II, experts and advocates said.

Coronavirus: Donald Trump defends calling COVID-19 the 'Chinese virus' President Donald Trump has continued to refer to coronavirus as the "Chinese virus," causing many to double down on their calls to avoid stigma.

Wearing face masks, a practice that began in Asian countries for cultural and environmental reasons and has crossed over to immigrant communities in the United States, has now become a racialized symbol of the virus.

“If you’re wearing a mask, you’re seen as a disease carrier. If you’re not wearing a mask, you’re seen as a disease carrier but negligent,” Jeung said.

In New York City, the Commission on Human Rights, which investigates incidents of harassment, discrimination and bias, has received a “sharp increase” in calls about COVID-19 related discrimination that includes incidents of bias against Asian Americans, spokeswoman Alicia McCauley said. McCauley said she’s unable to give an exact number, but the agency is receiving calls daily.

The New York Police Department is investigating an attack against a woman who was yelled at and assaulted at a subway station. A viral video shows the woman, who appeared to be of Asian descent and was wearing a mask, running as a man chased and struck her.

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The department’s Hate Crimes Task Force tweeted Monday that it was aware of reports of “several COVID-19 related hate crimes” and “arrests have been made in most cases.” NYPD’s spokesman did not respond to questions, including how many reports and arrests have been made, or if the victims were of Asian descent.

The state’s attorney general, Letitia James, also recently launched a hotline for New Yorkers to report hate crimes related to coronavirus.

“No one should live in fear for their lie because of who they are, what they look like, or where they come from,” James said in a statement Monday.

In Bellevue, Washington, police chief Steve Mylett said he’s seen a 178% increase in the number of applications for firearm transfers. The state requires firearm dealerships to report all firearm transfers to local police. Mylett said a significant number of applicants appeared to have last names consistent with Chinese heritage.

Harassment and other bias-related incidents have “put enough fear into them that they felt like they needed to arm themselves to protect themselves and their families,” Mylett said.

But despite the abundance of anecdotal evidence reported in the media and by advocacy groups, many police departments, including Mylett’s, said they have not seen any significant uptick in the number of hate-crime reports related to COVID-19. This suggests that people may be hesitant, if not fearful, to go to police.

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That’s a concern for Mylett. Hate crimes normally start as aggressive comments that don’t rise to the level of a crime before they escalate into physical violence, he said.

“So the earlier law enforcement can intervene, then hopefully we’ll be able to prevent somebody (from) being victimized and somebody making a decision that will land them in jail for a long time,” Mylett said.

Jeung, the San Francisco State professor, said there are several reasons why people may not want to report to police. Many Asian Americans are culturally reticent to deal with the government, he said. Some fled authoritarian regimes from their home countries and are inherently distrustful of authority. Some also came to the United States illegally and are fearful of calling attention to themselves. Language barriers can also be an issue.

Jeung and two advocacy groups in California recently launched a website allowing people to report incidents anonymously. They have received 673 responses over the past week from across the country, many of which came from New York and California, where majority of the United States’ Asian populations live, according to their report.

Governor orders Californians to stay at home California Gov. Gavin Newsom put the nation's most populous state on a stay-at-home order. He said late Thursday that the statewide restriction on any non-essential movement outside the home is needed to control the spread of the coronavirus. (March 20)

The incidents involved not only Chinese Americans, but also Japanese, Koreans, Taiwanese, Vietnamese and Filipinos – a clear case of racial profiling against Asian Americans, Jeung said.

Some said they were barred from business establishments, yelled at by cashiers and customers who accused them of bringing the virus to the country. Some said Lyft and Uber drivers refused to give them rides.

Some reported being coughed at and spat on. “While we were passing a group of four men, one of them coughed into me, not once, but TWICE, without covering his mouth. As I turned my head back, they all burst out laughing,” one respondent wrote.

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Another respondent reported being called “patient 0 and a virus spreader” online. Another said a man threw a drink in their face while saying “they should be banned.”

The shunning and verbal assaults were not just committed by adults, according to the report. One respondent said two teenage girls screamed and covered their own faces while on the train. Another reported hearing a young girl telling her parents she was going to die. After the parents asked why, “she said coronavirus and pointed in my direction,” the respondent wrote.

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Cynthia Choi, co-director of Chinese for Affirmative Action, one of the organizations that launched the website, acknowledged that the online reporting does not guard against fictitious reports and online trolls. But she said the reports show clear similarities in the tone of the harassment and attacks.

“We are definitely seeing patterns and can only base this assessment on this honor system that people are reporting what’s really happening to them,” Choi said.

Choi warned that in the age of Internet and social media, harmful rhetoric, misinformation and conspiracy theories can spread faster than the virus. Advocates also urged against using the geographical origin of the virus when referring to it publicly.

“Because that’s morally reprehensible, and it doesn’t help us solve the problem,” said Manjusha Kulkarni, executive director of the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council. “None of us would feel good about being labeled a virus. It’s disruptive. It’s physically and emotionally harmful.”

On Monday, Trump called Asian Americans "amazing people" and said the epidemic is "NOT their fault in any way, shape, or form."

In Oakland’s Chinatown, the scapegoating has led to a slump in business, said Chan, who immigrated from Hong Kong 40 years ago. Family establishments, many of which were started years ago by elderly residents who came to the United States for a better future for their families, began seeing significant drops in their business. Before California's shelter-in-place order took effect, many small business owners turned to their personal savings to keep their businesses open and make sure their employees still had jobs, Chan said.

“Personally, I feel very sad … When I’m quietly sitting down, I just feel so sad,” Chan said, his voice breaking. “Many of us are really suffering. Attacks, especially to our seniors, it really hurts … Many of them don’t know how to defend themselves.”