Educators Take a Stand Against Coronavirus Racism
A Vietnamese-American student in a Los Angeles classroom coughs after swallowing some water, and his teacher makes him go to the nurse. When the nurse clears him to return to his eighth-grade classroom, other students tease him that he has the coronavirus.
Bullies at a San Fernando Valley high school in California physically attacked a 16-year-old Asian-American boy who they accused of having the coronavirus.
And in the halls of schools in Madison, Wisc., teachers overhear coronavirus-related comments targeted at Asian students.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump repeatedly and unabashedly calls COVID-19 the “Chinese virus.” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo publicly embraces the term “Wuhan virus.” And Asian-American CBS News correspondent Weijia Jiang tweets, “A White House official referred to #Coronavirus as the ‘Kungflu,’ to my face.”
For Nan Lu, a member of Education Minnesota who teaches K–12 English language learners, this is personal. “I felt very hurt and offended [by Trump’s comments],” says Lu, who is Chinese-American. “To be the president of a nation and speak on national TV and call it the wrong name. … It’s really disrespectful and very disturbing.” She adds that when we had the H1N1 virus, or swine flu, in the U.S., “We didn’t say American virus or USA virus.”
Educators Must Lead with Facts
In the United States and around the world, reports of discrimination against Asians have drastically increased as fears and panic about the coronavirus pandemic—which originated in China—have taken hold. And, as usual, educators find CONTINUE READING: Educators Take a Stand Against Coronavirus Racism - NEA Today
Q&A: Educator Rights and Benefits - NEA Today - https://wp.me/p5kbFE-cHz via @NEAToday
