To think that coronavirus has exposed a nasty undertone of racism?

[AllHeart1]

Now I’ll admit that I can’t be doing with all the hysteria surrounding this. People wanting colleagues to stay off work because they’ve been to china/wanting to keep their kids off school because one of them has been to china/wanting Brits to be kept in china lest they bring the virus home.

While there have been some deaths, in comparison to the numbers of those diagnosed these are small and have occurred in people who mostly had already underlying health conditions.

But I can’t help thinking what these attitudes are actually saying about people’s attitudes towards the Chinese.

Quite apart from the above, I’ve seen people express concern that a package sent from China two weeks ago might infect them, followed by advice to quarantine it for two weeks and then spray with anti-bac before opening.

Wondering i f it’s safe to go to the local Chinese in case someone working there has been in contact with someone from China.

And someone I know personally who is of Chinese origin but grew up in this country being told that they should keep out of circulation because they’re Chinese and therefore could be infectious.

A lot of this is of course hysterical paranoia, but it seems to be spreading, and it gives out a very nasty message imho.

[haveanicedayx]

paulinespeaksmanylanguages i totally agree.

[ChanChanChan]

Whist there are definite questions to be asked about how the Chinese government had handled it, I see and read the obvious racism against Chinese (and East Asian looking) people daily.

Where were the threads about not getting take away pizza? None.

People assume you've been to China, or have relatives who've recently visited China all based on how you look. How are those assumptions not the very definition of racist? It never was just about minimising risk.

[sweetkitty]

My Dad who is a moron who believes the Daily M* was going on about the “dirty Chinese” eating bats. I asked him how different eating bats is to eating chickens? It’s just our perceptions same as pigs/dogs, it’s fine to torture and kill some animals but not the ones we call friends. I then asked him did he know how chickens are raised in this country? I’ve been inside a broiler house stepped over dead birds, been inside a slaughterhouse the sights and smell will stay with me forever. I fail to see how it is any different to eating bats really?
This could have happened anywhere it just happened it was China.

[pseudanonymous]

sigh Saw this thread had been bumped, and it makes me so sad. I'm ethnically half-Chinese, thought born in the UK. I look very East Asian though, and with that comes a whole raft of assumptions. My white friends are always shocked when they hear about incidents of racism (or are with me when they happen), but my mum isn't.

Because they happen every day. The day after the first Brexit referendum I was sitting waiting for a bus in London, and some guy threw a can of cider at me and told me I'd had to go back where I come from (Birmingham, actually).

I don't think it's necessarily true that it would be the same if it were some other country or ethnicity. On some level, it seems like it's still okay to be racist about Chinese people - or any person of East Asian background, since as I've heard so many times, 'we all look the same'. In France, there have been newspaper headlines like 'The New Yellow Peril' - is that not racist? Seriously? It saddens me, but I just expect this sort of behaviour now. I wish it were different.

[JamesBlonde1]

This thread is interesting now isn't it? 2 months on and look where we are with this pandemic.

[Hopingtobeamum]

@HeadachesByTheDozen which part of my post was minimising racism?
Give you head a shake and get a grip. I have no problems with challenge but accept that you have to have reasonable and justifiable grounds in which to challenge, in this case you have neither. If you'd like to have a sensible conversation about this am sure there's some form of private messaging on this forum (although I haven't seen any or tried it). If not then please let the adults carry on adulting and leave your vitriol for minor MN topics!

[xsquared]

Do you think all Chinese people treat animals cruelly Ozzie?

[HeadachesByTheDozen]

@Hopingtobeamum Are you serious? Your post was indeed minimising racism. That's the truth. If you don't like your attitude or behaviour called out, perhaps you should think about that. You're the one in the wrong here!

[Hopingtobeamum]

@HeadachesByTheDozen whoa there lady! Watch what you say, especially when you're chucking around accusations that I'm "minimising racism". That type of language will get you into trouble!

[HuskyloverI]

Wondering i f it’s safe to go to the local Chinese in case someone working there has been in contact with someone from China

That's a really good point actually!

And yeah, I'm not ordering anything from China for a while. Why risk it?

[HeadachesByTheDozen]

@Hopingtobeamum Absolutely wrong! You are confusing darn right stupidity with racism. When you assume every Chinese person is a threat, guess what? That is RACISM! It is racism, clear and simple. Stop minimising racism.

[Hopingtobeamum]

@Sooverthemill you're confusing racism with darn right stupidity (you're not stupid for the record, anyone that thinks like that is)

Anyone who is that stupid would benefit from getting a bit of Coronavirus. We could do with less idiots in the world.

[countrygirl99]

DS1s girlfriend is Chinese. As she hasn't been there for 3 years she is zero risk. But my white British friend who returned from Singapore last week may well be.

[nldnmum]

Keeping people at a distance who have just come from China - completely understandable IMO. Being suspicious of people who happen to be Chinese - wrong IMO as you don't know how long ago they were in China.

Very true especially after the confirmed case of the British national who infected 5 people in France after catching it in Singapore

[JohnnyCash22]

We've just got back from China (Shanghai) and there is noticeable discrimination in China (from the Chinese) for anyone who may have been to Wuhan.

I've also seen a "No Chinese" sign outside a shop from a friend in Vietnam.

We are self-quarantining, however, before I'd told my teenage daughter she had asked her friends if they wanted to meet up, and their parents said no. I completely understand this! While we were still in Shanghai my daughter asked if a friend could come for a sleepover, and we said no due to the virus.

Keeping people at a distance who have just come from China - completely understandable IMO. Being suspicious of people who happen to be Chinese - wrong IMO as you don't know how long ago they were in China.

Fear brings out the worst in people.

However, I would caution against the "it's no worse than flu crew". This virus overwhelmed the healthcare of an entire city in only 7 weeks. And figures suggest a large percentage of critical illness and subsequent reliance on some form of life support - 17% from the latest Lancet study.

[Sooverthemill]

@Hoping but it is racism's when the reactions are "there's a Chinese woman who works at my child's school. Should I let her go to school?" It's not racism when it's "should I cancel my holiday to China"

[Hopingtobeamum]

Oh for fucks sake people. It's not fucking racism it's facts.

Have you been to China? Yes.
Is the majority of confirmed cases happened in China? Yes
Have the majority of deaths related to this virus happened in China? Yes

Do you therefore want to increase the risk of your exposure to the virus? No

So what do you do? Be sensible, follow official guidance and use your brain to determine what's best for you.

Let's not over complicate the issue here. Penny, 38 from St Albans and her precious offspring are hardly at risk from taking a trip to their local Waitrose. On the other hand snogging someone who's just returned from Wuhan isn't someone one would recommend

[ooooohbetty]

No. I haven't noticed any hysteria or racism.

[HavenDilemma]

🤦🏼‍♀️

[HeadachesByTheDozen]

If someone is spraying antiseptic at some stranger in public because they look Chinese, that IS racist.

[Bbang]

Not quite as heated though as those poor dumb creatures in Chinese Markets

Eh? Doesn’t sound like you care much about the animals either love. Or are they just your red herring which you’re using to cover up your blatant racism of Chinese people.

[NaturalBornWoman]

And no, not all the millions of Chinese people worldwide condone the behaviour of some of their compatriots

Not all but enough do that there is a problem in China with widespread cultural practices which create the perfect conditions for the creation of pathogens which potentially pose an existential threat to the human race. That isn't ok and it isn't racist to acknowledge it. It's a difficult subject, agree.

[atomicblonde30]

I really don’t @pauline as evidenced by the people clearly in agreement with me on this thread, or are they deranged too?

I can see you have no intelligent recourse to my valid and factual points so have resorted to nonsensical insults instead, which is frustrating but not unexpected.

[paulinespeaksmanylanguages]

@atomicblonde30

You sound a bit deranged but it is good fun to see you get so heated...not quite as heated though as those poor dumb creatures in Chinese Markets.

Are we not allowed to pass negative comment on different races even when we are giving facts and not opinions? I must have missed that memo.