Coronavirus is not an excuse for your Xenophobia

I saw a lot of images and videos today of asian adults and children receiving physical and verbal abuse due to the hate and stereotypes put out by politicians and the media about the virus.

This image was taken as part of my street photography series 'the people of Coventry', back in late February/early March last year. At the time, the virus was isolated to Wuhan and its surrounding areas, but many of the students in the Asian community started to wear a lot of masks. No more than a week after this image was taken, the first case was found in the UK, and another virus started to arise, one of hate.

Before the lockdown in late March, I witnessed a lot of verbal abuse towards the community of asian university students in my city, at the bus stop, on the bus and everywhere. I thought these people were a minority because I didn't see other people decide to point the blame on an entire race of people, but a month into lockdown, the virus had spread to the worst impacted country, America. The one person responsible to resolve the crisis turned to the worst form of hate, renaming the virus the “Chinese Virus”, causing a whole new wave of hatred and stereotyping.

Although our situation may have evolved, we know more about the virus, and vaccines are being distributed despite the second wave, the hate crimes haven’t. The damage is done, and it is now our job to resolve it. Coronavirus is not an excuse for your Xenophobia, and to those who have been victim to it, I am so sorry. You are loved, you are accepted, and you deserve so much better <3