The rise of COVID-19 has brought with it lots of fear–but not always of just the virus itself. Cases of racism, xenophobia, and general bullying against Asians have surfaced all across social media and they’re all terrifying. Even small microaggressions against them have been popping up on Twitter and Facebook, people who have East Asian features saying that people walk in the other direction from them or avoid them on the streets, among other things.
Jonathan Mok is another victim of this dangerous stereotyping taken to a new degree.
https://www.facebook.com/jaidanmok/posts/10158209158373713?_rdc=2&_rdr
Jonathan Mok is a Singaporean student in London who was assaulted by a group of people last Monday at around 9 PM on Oxford Street. He’d been walking down the street when a man stared at him and mumbled something that he could make out as “coronavirus.” Eventually, they approached him and threw a punch.
“All of a sudden, the first punch was swung at my face and took me by surprise. When I was still shocked by the first hit, the guy delivered the second sucker punch,” he wrote.
“Racism is not stupidity — racism is hate. Racists constantly find excuses to expound their hatred— and in this current backdrop of the coronavirus, they’ve found yet another excuse. From refusing service to a Chinese-looking person to racially-motivated hate crimes, every single one of these acts are based on racism,” he shares in his Facebook post.
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