By Bhargav Patel
Jack Huang, 15, is a British-born Chinese student who was born and raised in Manchester, while his parents and grandparents are from Hong Kong. Like most secondary school students, he likes video games and junk food, and is looking forward to spending more time with his friends after the pandemic.
One thing he hasn’t looked forward to – nor got used to – is the racial abuse he has suffered since the pandemic began, due to his Asian heritage.
“Since the start of Covid, I have been dealing with a lot of racial slurs, such as ‘chinks’, or hearing, ‘If is wasn’t for you, Covid wouldn’t have happened’ by people that much older than me,” says Huang, whose parents came from Hong Kong.
“Sometimes it would’ve been people saying it after school. There are all types of people saying it, but I am good since they didn’t resort to violence.”
Nothing new
Violence against Asians isn’t new. The past year has not been easy for the Asian community and many have faced racial abuse since the start of the global pandemic, made all the worse by people such as former US President Donald Trump referring to Covid as the “Kung Flu” or “China virus”, and blaming Asia for its spread.
In addition, many places such as restaurants and other essential stores owned by Asian businesspeople have had to close down temporarily or possibly permanently, losing many jobs.
The violence hit a peak in the US on 16th March, when six Asian women and two others were killed by shooter Robert Aaron Long, 21. Long, who went on a shooting spree at a massage parlour, said he was trying to get rid of his sexual addiction.
“I mean, I feel like something needs to be done when I heard all the Asian hate crimes happening, and I am glad people have to come to recognise it,” said Calla Yim, 13, an American-born Korean. The shooting incident caused havoc for her and her community.
She said she is still coming to terms with it, even while people call her “Ling Ling”. She added that only now does she feel safe enough to go out.
“You started the virus”
Julia Ngo, 15, is another American-born Vietnamese, who said that she has had her fill of name-calling. “They used to call me ‘Corona, Corona’, or say: ‘You’re the one who started the virus,” She added that she has even been referred to as “dog eater”
“Anti-Asian discrimination in the UK started as early as the turn of the 20th century, when Chinese immigrants started settling in the Limehouse area of London.
“In 1901, when the first Chinese laundry in the British capital opened, it was immediately stoned by a hostile crowd. In 1908, in opposition to cheap Chinese labour, crowds of angry British seamen prevented their Chinese colleagues from signing on as ships’ crew,” Dr Anne Richards, an expert of British- Chinese Cultural relations from the University of Westminster, told Aljazeera earlier this month.
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