Columnist Jeff Yang was lining up to enter a store in his Los Angeles neighborhood on March 23 when he was picked up by a customer who was finishing her shopping. "She lowered her mask and coughed directly in my direction. After which, she put on her mask and turned on her heels, he said on Twitter. It hit my stomach. "
Jeff Yang hosts the podcast "They call us Bruce" (an ironic reference to kung fu actor Bruce Lee) where he attempts to give an Asian perspective on American society. Her son Hudson is one of the stars of the sitcom Fresh Off the Boat ("Just landed"), who was the first to stage an Asian-American family. He analyzed his meeting with the lady from the supermarket. "It may have been economic anxiety, a mental illness, or one of those days when you feel badly styled. Whatever. In any case I am sure that she tested positive for the virus of racism ", he commented.
“Hatred is a virus. " This is the title of the counterattack launched by young people from the Asian community in the United States on their t-shirts and social networks. A community which, from Hollywood (the film Parasite, of South Korean Bong Joon Ho, quadruple Oscar 2020) in Washington (Andrew Yang’s candidacy for the Democratic nomination for the presidential election), had begun to feel fully in place but that the coronavirus epidemic has taken years back.
"Dirty Chinese"
The spread of Covid-19 resulted in a spate of verbal and sometimes physical assaults against Asian Americans. On March 19, two advocacy NGOs from the "AAPI" community (Asian and Pacific Americans) launched a site where victims can testify about the incidents (Stop AAPI Hate). In two weeks, the platform recorded 1,135 reports. Despite the containment measures, the group stresses, incidents remain frequent. Rather than in the deserted workplaces, they now occur in the last places where the inhabitants meet: shops or pharmacies.
For fear of reprisals, the victims hesitate to testify publicly but the site has shared the stories anonymously. A young man describes the violent reaction of a passer-by when he had just sneezed with an allergy: "Go back to where you come from!" " Many have suffered sputum, insults, "Dirty Chinese", launched by a motorist from his car. On March 14, an Asian family was stabbed in a supermarket in Midland, Texas, an act the FBI decided to consider a racist crime. Even healthcare workers (17% of whom are of Asian origin) are not spared, as witnessed in the New york times Dr. Peter Lee of the intensive care unit at Montville Hospital in New Jersey.
