LONDON: Before I came to the UK in 2014, I lived in Finland for six years. When I first moved, British people were more friendly than Finnish people, who are somehow more shy. But after Brexit and after this pandemic, things got worse.
On February 23, just last month, around 4pm, I went out jogging near my home. There was a car driving on the other side of the road.
The driver opened the window and shouted at me, “Chinese virus!” Immediately, I shouted back, calmed myself, took some deep breaths and kept on jogging.
When I turned the corner, they came back and started shouting at me again. I got extremely angry, approached the car, and shouted at them: “Why are you doing this? Get out!” The driver and other guys got out of the car and attacked me.
Two months ago, my wife was learning to drive in her instructor’s car, when a boy on a bicycle asked if my wife was from an Asian country, and stuck his middle finger to her.
I don’t feel as safe as I used to. When I first arrived in the UK, I had no worries about running outside in the night. Obviously now, the situation for Asian people is really bad.
Sarah Owen, 38, Labour MP for Luton North said, it was definitely a problem even before the pandemic:
Attacks show this isn’t just an American problem. It is definitely a problem here in the UK [and] it was definitely a problem before the pandemic.
Last year, before coronavirus hit, we had [UK broadcaster] Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain poking fun at the Chinese language, taking a Chinese accent, and that was deemed to be okay. He didn’t apologise for it.
In terms of what I face online, nine times out of 10, I’m pretty hardened to it. But it’s things like videos being sent to me of live animals being eaten or jokes that punch down, depicting East Asians as inhumane because of the things we apparently eat.
I had to point out to [an online troll] that, “No, I don’t eat dog, and my pet dog is alive, well, and very happy.”
I don’t think [the government] is doing enough. There’s some warm words occasionally, but we have to fight even to get those warm words.
They bring cold comfort to people I know who have had their shop vandalised or who have been victims of hate crime. – Al jazeera
