As we are all aware, the rise of racist incidents in Australia is rapidly growing amidst the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic. Unacceptable as all this is, as Asians/Asian Australians, we need to be wary and vigilant of our surroundings because this racism and hate is not going to stop any time soon. Now to this situation.
A Melbourne bus driver was recently racially discriminated and blamed for the virus by a female passenger. This is what the bus driver told Nine News:
“She called me corona, she called me China, she called me bringing the virus to Australia,”
“It’s terrible, it’s disgusting.”
What is most upsetting is that the driver is working and putting himself and his family in harm’s way by being out there during this time. He is performing an essential service and yet is subjected to shit like this. Anyways, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has weighed in on this situation:
“He is doing really important work and he is putting himself in harm’s way in terms of the virus and all those pressures and challenges that he is facing.”
No longer can these incidents be called “isolated”, and they should be called what they actually are and that is “HATE CRIMES”.
As a final note, our team at Being Asian Australian has teamed up with the Asian Australian Alliance and Per Capita Research Fellow Osmond Chiu in laumching the COVID-19 Coronavirus Racism Incident Report, for ALL Asians and Asian Australians to log and record any instances of racism and hate experienced. Please share this post and the survey around with your friends, family and extended networks.
Images via Nine News
To read the original article, please click on: Coronavirus: Melbourne bus driver racially abused by passenger