The U.S. Has A History Of Linking Disease With Race And Ethnicity

Short Wave

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🗓️ 19 March 2021

⏱️ 13 minutes

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Summary

(Encore episode.) The coronavirus is all over the headlines these days. Accompanying those headlines? Suspicion and harassment of Asians and Asian Americans. Our colleague Gene Demby, co-host of NPR's Code Switch podcast, explains that this is part of a longer history in the United States of camouflaging xenophobia and racism as public health and hygiene concerns. We hear from historian Erika Lee, author of "America For Americans: A History Of Xenophobia In The United States."

LEARN MORE:
Check out Code Switch's full digital story and podcast episode.
And here's a collection of NPR's coverage on the rise in violence against Asian Americans.
Erika Lee's book "America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States"

As always, reach out to the show by emailing [email protected].

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, everyone, Emily Kwong here. While the investigation into the shootings in Atlanta is ongoing,
0:06.4	the trauma of this event magnifies the rise in anti-Asian harassment, discrimination,
0:12.3	and assault this past year. So we wanted to share with you an episode we did from March 2020,
0:18.5	the start of this pandemic, with reporting from the NPR podcast Code Switch. It's about the
0:24.1	historical origins of xenophobia in the US and how it connects with the rise in anti-Asian
0:29.6	discrimination today. You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Hey everybody, podcast reporter
0:39.0	and occasional host Emily Kwong here. So coronavirus has been all over the news with new cases of
0:46.4	the disease COVID-19 popping up around the world and in the United States. We begin with this,
0:52.7	the deadly coronavirus is spreading rapidly across the US. Nounting fears surrounding
0:58.0	coronavirus have forced some districts to cancel school. Growing chance, the coronavirus outbreak
1:03.6	causes a global recession. And along with all of that covered all the headlines and photos,
1:10.0	there's a growing anxiety. My family and I, we were going out to lunch. Such that Asians and Asian
1:16.0	Americans find themselves the targets of suspicion, discrimination, and harassment. They told my wife
1:23.2	and son to get away. Get out of here, go back to China. People call us corona. People ask us if we
1:30.2	dogs. And this kid said, well, you're Chinese, so you must have the coronavirus. Coronavirus.
1:36.0	It's probably coronavirus. The woman then replied that she isn't racist, but she just doesn't want to get sick.
1:41.3	These stories were all submitted to NPR's amazing Coatswitch podcast. They did an episode on this.
1:50.4	So we reached out to one of the co hosts, Jean Demby. Hey, Jean. Hey, Emily. I got to be honest.
1:56.2	My heart breaks listening to these stories because I am Asian American. My dad is Chinese.
2:02.2	And to see an entire group of people become the scapegoats for a virus, it just adds this
2:07.4	layer of racial anxiety to what is already a serious public health concern. Right. I mean,
2:12.5	there's this long history in the US of disease becoming linked to people's race and ethnicity.
	...

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