On March 25, American singer and K-pop idol Tiffany talked about the severe situation of racism and discrimination towards Asians due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Girls' Generation member expressed her thoughts and feelings about this issue through her Instagram account, along with a photo of her with her dog.
"2020 has been an emotionally unstable period for us all. I've been doing my part by staying at home," Tiffany wrote, noting that places around the globe have been issuing lockdown due to the coronavirus, and the California-born singer is not excluded.
"It is making me feel sad, to see the racism Asians around the world are faced with, and I hope everyone can remember humanity and love above anything else through drastic times like this," she went on.
After the first case of coronavirus reportedly started in Wuhan, China, which eventually spread throughout other countries and continents, Chinese and other neighborhood Asian countries have been facing several discriminations and racism issues around the globe.
This negativity coming from other nationalities is one of the reasons why Asians developed the fear of "coughing" in public, knowing that there will likely be unpleasant reactions from other people.
Recently, in San Diego, a Chinese citizen who has been living in America, was threatened by a US citizen as a confirmed positive patient of COVID-19 (source: VOX).
"Go back to China, or I'll shoot you myself," the person told the Chinese citizen.
What is making the situation sadder is that there are Asians who are also discriminative against fellow Asians. For instance, Chinese restaurants in a non-Chinese country are eschewed by the locals.
"We are fighting this together, and the world needs a hug right now," added Tiffany, with the hope that discrimination will be alleviated and people will hold hands to fight the unseen enemy.
View this post on Instagram.... 2020 has been an emotional free fall for us all. ive been doing my part to stay at home. it saddens me to see the racism Asians around the world are faced with, & i hope everyone can remember humanity and love above anything else through drastic times like this. we are fighting this together. the world needs a hug rn ️ A post shared by Tiffany Young (@tiffanyyoungofficial) on Mar 24, 2020 at 10:39pm PDT
After the post, Tiffany, who stepped on a serious matter, has been getting lots of sympathies and support from her followers, hoping that people will spread love rather than hate. Some online users also shared their experience as Asians who were discriminated and how they were comforted by Tiffany's words.
"I was referred to as a 'coronavirus', even if I am just using a mask," a netizen wrote.
Also, a netizen shared a story of a female who was punched into her face for being an Asian.
In addition to this, Korean idols were also affected by the racism as previously, the Korean artist who attended an event in Italy was called out for being a Korean, wherein a netizen uploaded a photo of the idol with a caption, "Here's the coronavirus."
The world-renowned group BTS, amid popularity, were not safe from the discrimination as well, linking their ethnicity into the virus. A viral tweet says, "BTS has coronavirus," after their appearance at the GRAMMYs 2020. The tweet also joked about how the people at the prestigious awards show would react if they would see BTS coughing.
Suffice it to say that the netizen stepped on a landmine for his discriminative tweet, and as a result, he eventually got reprimanded by a slew of netizens, calling him "Racist."
