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.

A good point about people’s ability to assess risk.

Racist? I doubt.
Ignorant? Far more likely.

Oh ffs I’m only surprised that it’s taken till now for someone on MN to turn rhis into a race issue🙄

i agree, there’s people avoiding the chinese here as well (though i’m in asia so it wouldn’t be racism, xenophobia, maybe?), even if they have been born and raised here. i get it if they’ve been in china recently but people are overreacting. it’s ridiculous.

I think trying to stop spread of a virus by spraying something anti bacterial is more extremely stupid rather than racist

i don’t think the fact that they’re avoiding chinese people is racist, like someone above me said, it’s more ignorance but i have seen people using the coronavirus as an excuse to be racist or to make racist jokes. so, correction, i half agree with you.

Some of the examples that people have come across and mentioned here ARE racist. Spraying a person with disinfectant because they look Chinese? Suggesting a Chinese person doesn’t come to work because they’ll scare customers? It’s making assumptions about people based purely on their race with no regard to genuine risk factors.

If there were a frightening disease outbreak in a particular region of the country you live in, I'm sure some of the people in the other regions of the same country would be hysterical about the perceived threat from their own countrymen-- people who share their language, culture, and race.

People lose their heads (some more than others) in the face of scary things like disease. For most people, it has nothing to do with underlying racism.

Jesus Christ ...

Agree with scaryteacher

Your being ridiculous

It's to do with panic. It manifests as racist with some peopoe because it's connected to one country at the moment. Aids panic in the '80s did produce some homophobia when it was seen as the 'gay disease' , that only decreased when people learnt that children could get it and die from it too.
Unfortunately a lot of people are rather thick, and as it's human nature to protect ourselves and our families first, that will produce some racist behaviour. It can't be very pleasant for Chinese people, (or anyone who's thought to be Chinese) who have this shit directed towards them.

Look, it started in China that is a fact.

A Chinese person, living in China, is more likely to have the disease than a Welsh person living in Wales.

If a Chinese person, who was living in China when this broke, travels out of China he has more chance of spreading it than if the Welshman travels out of Wales.

The Chinese person may not have it all of course but there is a chance that he might, maybe even a slim one.

Is any of that racist? Not to a reasonable person

If a child-of any nationality- arrived from an infected part of China one week ago and was sat next to my child at school, I would be unhappy and would make my feelings known.

If that would leave me open to accusations of racism by the hard of thinking, then so be it.

How is it racist to want to avoid contact with people who may have had exposure to illness...I would want to avoid someone who had just returned from China just the same as I would avoid my next door neighbour who has norovirus

Look people are morons.
When bird flu hit the uk the price of chicken, duck and goose dropped to penny's on the pound where I live.
When swine flu hit the price of pork dropped.
Why because people are morons who can't listen to experts.
The corona virus is about a 10 times LESS likely to kill you as normal seasonal flu. (According to Dr Beecham)

Similarly would someone tell a woman not to have a relationship with a man from africa lest he be infected with the HIV virus.

Yes, anyone travelling abroad is given that advice and it's a risk factor. Like it or not.

"i agree that we can most certainly perceive some Chinese food practices as problematic and dangerous. But we're not exactly in a position to talk"

Yes we are. Our animal welfare at it's lowest doesn't compare.

"but we're not exactly in a position to start lecturing other countries about what they should and shouldn't be eating."

I think this and the Elboa virus, as well as bird flu, says different. The way bears and other animals are tortured in the name of traditional medicine, is obscene. I don't see the eating of dogs as any different to eating pigs, but they are skinned and boiled alive. Likewise other animals. It's sick and you'd be imprisoned in this country for doing the same.

There's accepted practices that people are entitled to say are wrong. These include the treatment of babies and it's citizens.

It's not racism, because it's not about them being Chinese, it's about the fact that the virus is prevelant in China. And most people who visit China or travel from there are Chinese because it's a very closed dictatorship.

As a person of colour, I am so tired of reading white-knight posts on Mumsnet calling out racism where none of us have ever thought about it or would be affected by it.

YANBU.

I'm currently doing my PhD on Western perceptions of China, and it ain't pretty.

I'm afraid it does play to some inherent underlying racism. I remember with the bird flu outbreak, a colleague of Chinese origin who had never visited the country had to cope with some quite nasty reactions. If you look at the fact that, at least at the moment, ordinary flu is way more prevalent in this country and more dangerous but we are not getting these reactions, you have to wonder what motivates them.

It’s not racist to find the meat industry in China abhorrent.

It’s not racist to think it advisable to avoid Chinese people who have travelled back from infected places.

I am 100% confident that if the UK was at the centre of a medical epidemic then Chinese people would have exactly the same thoughts and concerns about British people. They also wouldn’t be racist.

@Ponoka7 please quote your source on the dogs

wanting Brits to be kept in china lest they bring the virus home.
How is this racist?? I don't think there is any racism about the Corona virus. Mass hysteria, yes. Racism, no. If this outbreak had been in Australia people would be avoiding Australians, nothing to do with the colour of anyone's skin ffs.

I agree with Scaryteacher. I can't remove the mental image of the meal called '3 squeaks' from my head now. Rancid.

Wonder why the voting patterns are like they are on this one? Wokelash that's why.

I think racism towards Chinese people is often more tolerated than racism towards other ethnic minorities.

That being said I’ve not noticed any racism on here related to coronavirus but it’s all over twitter.