PARKER: The face of the ‘enemy’ has no color
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State Sen. Kevin Parker is chair of the Committee on Energy and Telecommunications. He represents Flatbush, East Flatbush, Windsor Terrace and other neighbors Central Brooklyn. Photo courtesy of Parker’s Office
By Sen. Kevin Parker
As the numbers of Americans testing positive and dying of COVID-19 continue to rise, so too is the fear of contracting the illness.
However, for people in Asian American communities, this fear is further exacerbated by the hateful trifecta of stigma, bigotry and discrimination.
According to published reports, the upsurge of the cases of COVID-19 has given rise to the unnecessary and unwarranted scapegoating of people of Asian descent.
Sadly, this has been fueled by the vitriolic language spurred out of the White House and echoed publicly by the President himself referring to COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus.” As if to heartlessly rub salt into the gaping wounds of our pierced collective consciousness, President Trump has shamelessly defended his statement claiming that it accurately identifies the place of origin of the virus.
His baseless posture is called out by a clear guideline from The World Health Organization (WHO), which in 2015 said that geographic locations "should be avoided" when naming infectious diseases, in order to avoid "stigmatizing certain communities or economic sectors." The WHO directive added: “Disease names can provoke a backlash against members of particular religious or ethnic communities."
Unfortunately, others have allowed the President’s language to set the tone and thus put the lives and livelihoods of our Asian Americans brothers and sisters at great risk.
The civil rights coalition — Asian Americans Advancing Justice — has reported a disturbing rise in hate crimes ranging from physical abuse, vandalism, name-calling, and similar discriminatory acts in New York, California and Texas. The most horrific attack reported to date occurred in Midland, Texas, where three Asian American family members - including a two and 6-year-old were stabbed. Published reports stated that the man suspected of committing the acts said he stabbed the family because he thought they were “Chinese and infecting people with the coronavirus."
The unfortunate truth is this is not the first time we have been down this vile path of targeted hate against a population segment.
Our country’s dark past is littered with the likes of the Japanese internment camps after World War II. It was political actions cloaked in bigotry that fueled the enforced dislocation of upwards of 100,000 Japanese Americans who had to abandon their homes and businesses and live in internment camps.
In our more recent history, the intensification of Islamophobia placed its indelible mark on our nation’s consciousness with the negative feelings and attitudes toward the 2.45 million Muslims who live in the United States. This scourge became particularly pervasive post the 9/11 the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
So too did the attacks — physical, economic and social — on Sikh American communities which saw a 17 percent spike in violence since the 2016 elections. This included a horrific act at a place of worship in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, when a gunman killed six Sikh worshippers at their gurdwara.
It is against this historical backdrop of hate and discrimination that COVID-19 is playing out like an American horror story for millions of Asian Americans. This is something that affects me to my core as it should other Americans as well. Primarily, it is disturbing to me as a human being because as we face this common colorblind enemy that is COVID-19, we should be finding our humanity not redefining it at its basement level.
Also, as an African American man I am particularly wired to the scenes of hatred playing out during this pandemic. In this country, African Americans have had the most history of hatred and oppression meted out because of our skin color. In the sophomoric view of some conservatives, such discriminatory practices are silent discussions in post-Obama America. Nothing can be further from the truth! And the fires of hate burning against Asian Americans are ample proof that bigotry and racism are flamboyantly alive in “Trump’s America.”
Therefore, we must continue to dispel this ridiculous notion that the coronavirus pandemic is the fault of Asians Americans because it originated in China.
Instead, let’s use this opportunity to work toward breaking the generational curse of bigotry that has plagued this nation. In this time as we are called to be alone-together, let’s create a society where our silence is transformed into positive language and progressive action.
State Sen. Kevin Parker is chair of the Committee on Energy and Telecommunications. He represents Flatbush, East Flatbush, Windsor Terrace and other neighbors Central Brooklyn.
