Right now, we’re living through a pandemic.
Right now, COVID-19 is spreading throughout the world.
Right now, millions of people are catching it.
Right now, we’re not safe.
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But people who look like me are facing a different kind of virus.
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Some call it the China virus.
Some call it the Kung-flu.
I call it racism.
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Asian-Americans have been scapegoated for the spread of COVID.
Asian-Americans have been told to go back to China because they were unwanted in America.
Asian-Americans have had to endure people throwing racial slurs such as chink or gook in their faces.
Asian-Americans have faced a new wave of hate crimes, such as the Atlanta shootings of Robert Long.
As an Asian-American, I am afraid to be living in this time.
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Do you know what it’s like to live in a constant state of fear?
Do you know what it’s like to be afraid that someone will try to burn you to death like that 89-year-old woman?
Do you know what it’s like to be generalized as a Chinese-American when you aren’t one?
Do you know what it’s like to be told that all Asian-Americans look the same?
Do you know what it’s like to be labeled as the “model minority”?
Do you know what it’s like to be afraid that the country you were born in will go to war with the country you live in now?
Do you know what it’s like to be scared that one day you might be in an internment camp like the Japanese were in World War Two?
Do you know what it’s like to see people credit your success on your nationality rather than your effort?
Do you know how awful it feels to see your race be sexualized in mainstream media?
Do you know what it’s like?
Do you?
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Some Americans forget that without the help of Asians, their infrastructure would be nowhere near as advanced as it is today.
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We have helped Americans throughout history, and how do they repay us?
With the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882?
With the Gentlemen’s Agreement?
With the Immigration Act of 1917?
With the Tydings-McDuffie Act?
By calling us slurs born from a time of hatred?
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Racism is the virus that has attacked my people since the very beginning.
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