With the rapid spread of the Corona Virus, there has been a world wide panic. People have gone shopping to stock up on cleaning products along with basic necessities like food and water. Recently in central London, a Singapore man of Chinese ethnicity was assaulted. The 23-year-old victim, Jonathan Mok, was “punched, kicked, and sustained facial injuries in the attack”(Woodyatt 2020). Jonathan Mok made a Facebook post saying “one of his assailants referenced the coronavirus outbreak during the attack”(Woodyatt 2020). As of March 5, 2020 no arrests were made. According to the article, this is not the first time Jonathan Mok experienced racial abuse in the last couple weeks, and all were referencing the coronavirus outbreak. As stated by the article, “Mok’s case is one of a number of incidents that have occurred in the UK during the global coronavirus outbreak”(Woodyatt 2020).
As defined in the Social problems textbook, racism is a “set of beliefs about the claimed superiority of one racial or ethnic group”. A hate crime is defined as a “a crime, usually violent, motivated by prejudice or intolerance toward an individual’s national origin, ethnicity, color, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability”(Dictionary.com 2020). Jonathan Mok, a long with many other Asians were assaulted after the coronavirus outbreak because of their ethnicity. These people were so afraid of catching a virus that broke out in China that they assaulted anyone who appeared to be of Asian decent. People have created a negative stereotype against Asians because of this outbreak. Assuming anyone who is Asian has this virus just because it broke out in China, is an example of prejudice and discrimination. These victims were racially discriminated against due to the virus.
From this article I learned how easily a hate crime can start. There are Asians and other people who are traveling being assaulted because the fear of the spread of the coronavirus. I also learned that hates crimes don’t solve anything. In my opinion, if the people who assaulted others were really afraid of catching the coronavirus, they would’ve avoided the individuals they assaulted. Assaulting the victims only did harm. Another thing I learned about is how hate crimes are rarely talked about in the media. Jonathan Mok made a post on Facebook about what happened to him that blew up, but what about the many other individuals who were assaulted? No one talked about them. So from this article, I learned how easily motivated people can be to commit a hate crime, and how rarely hate crimes are talked about.
Word Count 423
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/05/uk/coronavirus-racist-attack-police-intl-scli-gbr/index.html
Sociology 201 