Coronavirus and Social Stereotyping

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/summary.html

In the past few weeks, it seems all anyone can talk about, read about, and think about has been the global health threat, the coronavirus (COVID-19). Although I initially didn’t want to feed into the utter panic that our community (globally and locally) has been catapulted into by blogging about my knowledge and research of the coronavirus, I’m starting to understand that this is an issue that needs the utmost attention. Being able to have seen and tracked the spread of this illness and its consequential effects on humanity as a global scholar and as a Poly student in general has been a life changing experience.

 In my City of Angels class, the entire curriculum of the second semester revolves around illness and the social tropes that come with it. We read Susan Sontag’s Illness as metaphor ; and, AIDS and its metaphors and learned about the process of social stereotyping, internalization, and policy that follows illness as it spreads throughout humanity. We especially focused on the history of TB in Los Angeles and its implications on modern life in LA. We learned that those with TB were thought to be poetic and artsy, and that those diagnosed with TB were often told to move out to Los Angeles to aid with their diagnosis. The ‘clean’ air of Los Angeles was thought to help with the disease of the lungs. Obviously, this picture of Los Anglees as untouched and full of fresh air juxtaposes the urban metropolis of today. These associations of people withTB as artistic, outspoken, and poetic weren’t random. Despite being unfounded, the social stereotypes that came with TB reflected a human need and desire to be in control. People didn’t understand why one contracted the dreadful and sometimes fatal disease, so they put labels on it that weren’t correct or evidence-based: those who are poetic and outspoken will contract the colorful disease of the lungs. 

These associations seem dated, but the process of social stereotyping and categorizing still happens today, and it can be seen through the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19). The virus is known to have started in Wuhan, China, and as the virus has spread across the world, racist associations with the illness have begun to surface. Not only has social media been a medium to spread racist tropes about Chinese people and other East Asians, but even high members of the American government contribute to this racist grouping of Asian people with the coronavirus. Mike Pompeo, the United States Secretary of State, referred to the virus as the “Wuhan virus” rather than the coronavirus, or COVID-19. Categorizing an illness that is affecting the entire world, regardless of race, status, nationality, or any other circumstance, with a specific ethnic group from Wuhan, China, is racist, and it spreads negative social ideas about Chinese people and about those who live in Wuhan. 

This is just the beginning of a process that I’ve learned tends to happen with illness and humans. However, it is something to look out for and should be a reminder that a global health threat is not an excuse to normalize or justify racism or inequality.