Discrimination and Disparities due to this Outbreak Assignment | Essay Help Services

What can be done to address discrimination and disparities due to this outbreak? Whose responsibility is it to stand up against coronavirus-related racism and inequity?. OR, after conferring with your instructor, write an essay based on one of the discussion board prompts. In the introduction to your essay, provide pertinent background information and end with a claim about combatting coronavirus. In the body of the essayOpinion
Call It ‘Coronavirus’
Disease and prejudice have long gone hand in hand. We can do better in 2020.
By The Editorial Board
The editorial board is a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise,
research, debate and certain longstanding values. It is separate from the newsroom.
March 23, 2020
We’ve been down this road before, too many times. In the 14th century the Black Death
provoked mass violence against Jews, Catalans, clerics and beggars; when syphilis spread in the
15th century, it was called variously the Neapolitan, French, Polish and German disease,
depending on who was pointing the blame; when the plague struck Honolulu in 1899, officials
burned down Chinatown. And so on, down to our times, when epidemics like Ebola, SARS and
Zika fueled animus toward specific regions or peoples.
Here we are in 2020, with Asians being assailed across the United States and around the world as
purported sources of the “Chinese flu,” the “Wuhan coronavirus” or simply the “foreign virus.”
Comment [DS1]: Annotations should at minimum include
identification of:
-The main claim
-The evidence
-The recommendation (call to action!)
-The critique
-Vocabulary that is new for you, add appropriate
definition
-References (can search quickly on Wikipedia, that is fine,
dig deeper if you are interested!)
Remember our purpose: we are reading to develop an
informed opinion about what is going on and who should be
responsible for responding to coronavirus related racism
and inequity.
Comment [DS2]: Background information: Examples of
discrimination fueled by epidemics
-Black Death 14 century and mass violence against Jews,
Catalans, clerics, and beggars
-syphilis 15th century called Neapolitan, French, Polish and
German disease
-the plague 1899 officials burned down Chinatown
-more: Ebola, SARS, Zika
Comment [DS3]: To assail- physically or verbally attack
someone
Once again, a mysterious, fast-spreading and sometimes lethal disease is exacerbating racism and
hatred — only now with the help of the potent megaphone of social media.
As the coronavirus has spread from its beachhead in Wuhan, China, old anti-Asian prejudices
have spread with it, from the “Yellow Peril” canard that led to the lynching of Chinese in the
1870s to stereotypes of Chinese as dirty and decrepit.
As The Times reported on Monday, Chinese-Americans and other Asians lumped together with
them by racists are being beaten, spat on, yelled at and insulted from coast to coast, driving some
members of the maligned minority to purchase firearms in the fear of worse to come as the
pandemic deepens.
The United States is not alone in this blight of xenophobia. Japan’s Kyodo News agency
described similar incidents of anti-Asian bigotry wherever the coronavirus has struck: Asian
students pelted with eggs in Leicestershire, England, or people in Egypt yelling out “corona”
when passing Asians in the street. Vile posts on social media have made graphic threats in rants
against Asians over the coronavirus.
However much mystery still surrounds the coronavirus, these are not the Dark Ages, and there
really should be no reason to remind people that this terrible new virus makes no distinction
among races or nations. Though it makes good medical sense to keep a distance from people
who have been to an area with a high rate of infection — which today is effectively anywhere —
it is foolish and malicious to hold the Chinese (or any other) people responsible for the spread of
the virus, or to assume that they are somehow more likely to be its carriers.
A time of great fear and danger requires solidarity, humanity, sacrifice and hope, and not hysteria
or hatred. That should be the message of the world’s political, social, religious and corporate
leaders as they race to find ways to cope with the lethal virus. Many leaders have done just that.
It is more than unfortunate, then, that President Trump, some members of his cabinet and some
conservative politicians have opted to fan the bigotry by deliberately using the term “Wuhan
virus” or “Chinese virus.” Mr. Trump, who spent previous months calling it the coronavirus,
started defending the use of “Chinese virus” last week. Photographs of a text of the speech he
was reading seemed to show “Corona” lined out and “Chinese” written in the president’s hand.
Mr. Trump tweeted support of the Asian-American community on Monday, but his many
supporters online had already embraced his formulation.
In tying the virus to China, the president has also adopted the argument of Mike Pompeo, the
secretary of state, that referring to Wuhan or China is payback for Chinese disinformation and
for Beijing’s delay in letting the world know of the outbreak. Of course, it is possible to hold the
Chinese government accountable for its handling of the crisis and its spread of misinformation
without maligning a nation of more than 1.3 billion people or the people of Chinese descent who
make their homes in nations around the world.
The xenophobia and prejudices that result from naming new infectious diseases after places,
people or animals are the reasons the World Health Organization has urged against doing so, and
Comment [DS4]: Thesis: Social Media (and leaders) calling
it the “Chinese flu” or “foreign virus” is exacerbating racism
and hatred.
Comment [DS5]: Evidence: there is and has been racism
against Asians in the the West: lynching of Chinese in 1870s,
Yellow peril metaphor
References:
Yellow peril = a color metaphor that East Asians are an
existential danger and threat to the Western World begun
in Ancient times. Rooted in cultural fear/xenophobia
Lynching of Chinese in the 1870s in US: From wikipeida,
“The Chinese massacre of 1871 was a race riot that
occurred on October 24, 1871, in Los Angeles, California,
when a mob of around 500 white and mestizo persons
entered Chinatown and attacked, robbed, and murdered
Chinese residents”
Vocabulary:
Canard = rumor
Comment [DS6]: Evidence: anti-Asian bigotry and attacks
reported in Japan, England, Egypt..
Vocabulary:
Maligned = evil in nature
Blight = disease, a thing that spoils or damages smth
Comment [DS7]: Bigotry = intolerance
Comment [DS8]: Vile – extremely unpleasant
Comment [DS9]: Point: virus affects everyone, makes
sense to limit travel & social distance, BUT it is HARMFUL to
hold anyone responsible for the spread or to assume they
are more likely to be its carriers.
Comment [DS10]: malicious – intending or intended to do
harm
Comment [DS11]: Recommending leaders to carry a
message of solidarity, humanity, sacrifice & hope
Comment [DS12]: Critique leaders who are referring to
coronavirus as the “Chinese virus”
Recommendation #2: call it coronavirus!
Comment [DS13]: Another smaller claim: handling of
Chinese government for handling of crisis and
misinformation without speaking hatefully about/toward
Chinese or people of Chinese descent.
Comment [DS14]: Xenophobia – fear of “others”
Prejudice – preconceived opinion that is not based reason
(prejudgment)
Bigotry- intolerance toward those who hold different
opinions from oneself
instead using generic descriptive terms like “coronavirus.” Names like Middle East Respiratory
Syndrome, Spanish flu, swine flu or monkey pox, the W.H.O. said, can have serious
consequences, whether provoking a backlash against members of a particular community or
prompting needless slaughter of food animals.
In the end, though, the anti-Asian hatreds spread by the coronavirus are not solely the product of
politics, but of the deep fears that have always accompanied the outbreak of lethal pathogens. It
is for all Americans to try, in whatever ways they can, to remain united and compassionate as the
disease invades all facets of our lives.
The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what
you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email:
letters@nytimes.com.
Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and
Instagram.
A version of this article appears in print on March 24, 2020, Section A, Page 22 of the New York
edition with the headline: Call It ‘Coronavirus’. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
Comment [DS15]: repeat recommendation: we need to be
united, compassionate