Racism and Orientalism in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Student’s Name
Instructor
Course
Date
Racism and Orientalism in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Joey S. Kim’s article Orientalism in the Age of COVID-19 is a protest against Orientalism. It is a cry to the “Asian and Asian Anglophone” in the public space to raise their voices against the (Western) colonist, imperious, and racist “Orientalist rhetoric” that paints the non-white (specifically, Asian) ‘Other’ as an existential threat to Western civilization (Kim). Despite being emotionally charged, the author impressively maintains an intellectual balance charting the development and adoption of Orientalism with historical facts. If anything, Kim’s work urges attention to the present danger gathering through the Western formulation of the Covid-19 pandemic as an Asian production (or at least, a production of people “of presumed Chinese descent”). It shines a light on the shifting conception of Orientalism to cast Asians as purveyors of the Covid-19 virus. On the other hand, Claudia Wallis’s article Why Racism, Not Race, Is a Risk Factor for Dying of COVID-19 is a sample from a mosaic of articles about healthcare equity published in 2020 and 2021 during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Her article is a conduit through which the thoughts and ideas of Camara Phyllis Jones (a physician and public health specialist) flow. It shines a new light on how the Covid-19 pandemic affected another minority community that has historically suffered as a victim of the same Western mindset that views the non-White “Other” as a danger to its civilization, less human, or less deserving (Wallis). The article is Jones’ lament about the conditions that have placed the Black person under 2.8 times more risk of being hospitalized for a [Covid-19] infection and... 1.9 …times” more chance of dying after hospitalization “compared with non-Hispanic white people” (Wallis). She talks about the “context of our lives” to paint in a somewhat organized way how social conditions like the food deserts, a higher burden of chronic illnesses, and an unequal and discriminatory healthcare system placed the Black person at a higher risk of a more severe impact from the pandemic (Wallis). Why are people of color, including Asians, adversely affected by COVID-19, and how does it enhance the orientalism?
To a deep thinker, reading these two articles may lead them to the same conclusion – more or less. This is despite them dealing with seemingly diverse issues – bound only by the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the subjects of their debate. For instance, the two articles focus on different races. Kim discusses Orientalism – a Western social construct that perceives people of Asian descent as a threat – through the lens of the racist backlash that faced the Asian community based on the assumed origins of the Covid-19 virus. Her thoughts do not occur in a vacuum. They result from the observations made by countless researchers. According to Gover et al., the powerful Western media and public officials primed and mid-wived the “`China virus` rhetoric” without considering its potential risks for the Asian community (662). Physical and verbal violence against people of presumed Chinese descent has soared, and anti-Asian sentiment continues to rise due to this problematic framing of the virus. This redefinition of Orientalism is a manifestation of a deep-seated Western hatred (or fear) of Asians used (in the past) “to describe not only military threats but also immigration from Asia” (Kim).
In contrast, Wallis’ article uses the Black person’s (or Black American’s) experience of the pandemic as the lens through which to view the pandemic. As Covid-19 related deaths swept through the United States, it became clear that the Black community was facing a more severe impact from the virus. As it would turn out, historically “invisibilized [sic] and undervalued [jobs] in terms of the pay …now categorized as essential work” were disproportionately staffed with more Blacks than non-Hispanic White Americans (Wallis). Moreover, the living conditions for black people were less than suitable for arrangements that would allow the so-called essential workers to self-isolate from the rest of their families when at home. Factors like these exposed the black community more, leading to disproportionately higher infections. Furthermore, a plethora of systemic issues that have historically resulted in an under-educated and under-empowered Black person ...