Vice Report Analysis: Racism and Discrimination in Covid-19 Responses
Introduction
The Covid-19 pandemic has created a lot of fear and disorganization in various sectors. Amidst this confusion, the social and cultural order is equally affected. The Covid-19 pandemic has unveiled the social as well as the political fractures within different communities. Radicalized, as well as discriminatory responses disproportionately affect the marginalized groups. This paper will discuss how racism and discrimination have been revealing in the Covid-19 responses.
Summary
Since COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan China, numerous speculations regarding the nature of the disease have been made. Its origin and link to China are controversial topics. The scope of every detail of the virus has become the mission of every media house. Both the local and international news seeks to analyze the controversial outbreak. As the virus sinks deeper into the global location, the world is overwhelmed with the rising mortality rates, increasing pressure for the source of the Covid-19 information. This pressure is accompanied by discrimination towards the Chinese people. The discrimination includes acts of violence, microaggression and collective forms. For instance, the Chinese people being denied access to some countries, with suspicion of spreading the Corona Virus. Moreover, discrimination has also been witnessed in China, where other nationals, mainly Africans, have been subjected to forced quarantine and Covid-19 tests.
Current Status of the Issue
Following the spread of Coronavirus from Wuhan, many cases of discrimination and racism have been reported. Discrimination has been to both towards the Chinese and other marginalized groups. Rather than treating Covid-19 to be an equalizer and a universal threat, the policies are biased. They discriminately impacted the people of color as well as the migrants (Lukiyanov & Thiruppathi, 2020). They are perceived to be over-represented in the poverty looming groups, often work in precarious jobs and have limited access to healthcare. Amid the emergence of Covid-19, social protection has been put to the test. Combating the spread of the virus requires both social and healthcare initiatives. Unfortunately, meeting these requirements proves to be a great challenge, particularly among the poor socioeconomic groups. People in resource-poor settings cannot obtain social protection. For instance, due to the rapid spread of the Coronavirus, social distancing and self-isolation have been identified as effective measures. However, the toil of sustaining the daily basic needs makes self-isolation impossible for the low-income groups, putting them into high risk of contracting Coronavirus. Moreover, the ethnic minority groups are also at the higher risk of being infected with Covid-19 due to comorbidities-for instance the high rates of diabetes and hypertension among the black populations and South Asians. Nevertheless, the many migrants, especially those without documents evade hospitals for fear of being identified and would prefer presenting themselves when the condition gets unbearable.
The discrimination that emanates from Covid-19 response has subjugated in China. The Human Rights Agencies have alerted that the Chinese Government should curb the discriminatory treatment against the Africans. In early April 2020, it was reported that the Chinese authorities in Guangzhou, that hosts the largest population of the African community initiated a forced Covid-19 test for the Africans. Moreover, the authorities ordered the African individuals to self-isolate and quarantine in the designated facilities. As if this was not enough, it was reported that the Chinese landlords evicted the Africans from their residences, forcing some to sleep on the streets. Videos of the Africans on the streets confirmed the reports. Unlike Africans, other foreign groups are not subjected to the same treatment. Guangdong authorities announced on April 12, directed that all foreigners should abide by the Covid-19 prevention measures. Among these measures are the testing, samplings as well as quarantine. However, the authority was targeting the Africans who were later subjected to forced quarantine and testing. In practice, the authorities visited Africans in their homes, testing them and directed that they attend the hospital for further testing. Besides, some Africans were forced into self-quarantine.
Despite the purported aims of the policies, there is no scientific basis to support the way Africans are discriminated. For example, the imported cases to Guangdong were mainly Chinese nationals. It is ironic that many Africans who had tested negative and had no recent travel history were subjected to such discrimination. Nevertheless, Africans have also reported harassment from the police as well as the local officials from China (Orcutt et al. 2020). Upon intervention by the concerned international bodies, the Chinese Government denied the discrimination reports and affirmed that they are intolerant to any form of discrimination.
The official figure of the African nationals living in Guangzhou is 14000. However, there is much African living without documentation. The mistreatment due to Covid-19 response has negatively affected social relationships. Many Africans living in China seek their Government’s intervention in the situation. In this regard, various African governments have committed to intervening into this condition. For example, the Kenyan Government announced to evacuate Kenyans stranded in China by May 1. Nonetheless, various African governments, including Ghana, Uganda, and Nigeria summoned the Chinese ambassadors in their respective countries to protest against the mistreatment subjected to their citizens.
References
Lukiyanov, M., & Thiruppathi, A. (2012). U.S. Patent No. 8,090,681. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Orcutt, M., Patel, P., Burns, R., Hiam, L., Aldridge, R., Devakumar, D., … & Abubakar, I. (2020). Global call to action for the inclusion of migrants and refugees in the COVID-19 response. The Lancet.