When the coronavirus pandemic started to spread across the world in early 2020, a lot was unknown — about the disease, about how it spread, and about how it would affect us. While scientists sought answers, there was fear that, in the absence of understanding, fear would take over.
Russell Jeung, a professor of Asian American studies at San Francisco State University, knew there was a distinct possibility that Americans would blame the Asian American community for the disease, which originated in China. It had, after all, happened before: “I remember SARS leading to the shunning and harassment of Asians in 2003,” Jeung tells Mic.
