With the spread of the coronavirus, be on guard against racism

A boy who is Chinese-American sneezes at school, and another student laughs and says, “You must have coronavirus.”That’s not a hypothetical situation. That happened to the son of friends. And it’s racism.

As coronavirus spreads around China and starts to reach other parts of the world, we need to be on guard not to let fear of a new disease translate into racist comments and actions against Asian-Americans.

Sure, you can try to write off a racist comment by a child as thoughtless or joking. But jokes can be a difficult form of racism for a child — or a grownup — to fight. And those types of comments reflect the thoughts not just of children, but also of the adults who are raising them and the society they — and we —l ive in.

Racism comes in many forms. Sometimes it’s obvious and direct. Sometimes it’s subtle and a little slippery, a little harder to get your fingers around. But it’s important for us to name it for what it is and to look inside ourselves and consider whether we are viewing or treating others differently because of race.

At times, racism might rear its head because of fear — and concern about a new, relatively unknown illness is certainly very real. But even though it’s natural to be afraid of the new coronavirus, there is nothing natural or normal or acceptable about racism. As Christians, we are called to love our neighbor — and Jesus made clear that no matter what differences we might perceive, everyone is our neighbor.

As the parents of two children who were born in China, we have spoken with our children about the coronavirus, assuring them that Chinese-American people are not any more likely to get sick with it than anyone else and talking about racism they might encounter at school. That’s not a new conversation. It’s an ongoing one. When we were planning to adopt, people would tell us that we would need to watch for reverse racism — assuming that our children would be good at math, for example. But racism — real racism — against Asian-Americans is common enough.

This Slate story explains how avoiding people of Chinese descent because of concern about disease is nothing new. The article quotes an associate professor of history and Asian American studies at the University of Connecticut saying, “There’s a long history of thinking of Asians as disease carriers that’s at least 200 years old.”

As we wait to learn the official name of the coronavirus, it’s a relief to know that it will not be named in any way for China or any part of China. It shouldn’t be. And let’s pray that the spread of the virus can be stopped and better treatments developed so deaths can be prevented and people are healed.

Meanwhile, let’s also do our part to fight against racism in all its forms and to remember that everyone is our neighbor — and deserving of our love.

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