PART 1: MLA Citation
Tavernise, Sabrina, and Richard A. Oppel. “Spit On, Yelled At, Attacked: Chinese-Americans Fear for Their Safety.” The New York Times 23 Mar 2020. The New York Times. Web. 29 Mar 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/23/us/chinese-coronavirus-racist-attacks.html
Preparatory work for writing the Summary: I used a graphic organizer to find MIs and SD.
GRAPHIC ORGANIZER
| MAIN IDEA (MI) Asian-American immigrants are being blamed for the corona virus and facing racist and hate attacks both verbal and physical. |
| SUPPORTING DETAIL:
An Asian woman in San Francisco was yelled and spit upon in public street. Many Asian Americans are reporting harassment when they are out shopping, walking, or riding public transportation. |
SUPPORTING DETAIL:
President Trump has been using the phrase “Chinese virus” spreading the misconception that Chinese people have brought the virus to America. The WHO discourages using geographic locations in referring to a disease. |
SUPPORTING DETAIL:
Parents fear for their children’s safety. Asian children are reporting bullying. A middle school child in CAL was attacked and sent to the emergency room. |
PART 2: SUMMARY
In “Yelled At, Spit On, Chinese Americans Fear for Their Safety,” Denise Tavernise and Richard Oppel report that Asian-American immigrants are being blamed for the corona virus and facing hate attacks both verbal and physical. These verbal attacks are being hurled at Americans of Korean, Japanese, Philipines and other Asian countries descent. Many are reluctant to go out in public. In San Francisco, an Asian woman walking home from her gym was yelled at and spit upon by a man on the street. When a bus passed her, he yelled, “Run them over!” Parents fear for their children’s safety. An Asian high school student was bullied, assaulted, and sent to the emergency room with a possible concussion. His attacker accused him of carrying the virus. In addition, President Trump is spreading the racist ideas by calling the Co-Vid virus the “Chinese” virus although the World Health Organization has advised against using geographic locations to name diseases.
PART 3: REFLECTION
This article makes me understand that this rise in anti-Asian violence is happening all over America, and that is a scary thing. Hatred is spreading nationwide. The fact that Americans are lumping together Koreans, Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese and acting hatefully toward anyone who is Asian proves that American society can’t and doesn’t know the difference. There are many in America who think everyone is Chinese and then they hate Chinese because they think Chinese are spreading disease. Being spit at feels like you are despised and being treated like an animal. It makes you feel disrespected as a human being. I agree that Trump and the Republicans who follow him blindly are purposely using the term “Chinese virus” to pass the blame onto anyone who looks Chinese. He is detracting attention away from his own ineffectiveness and lack of responsibility in leading us through this pandemic. Now in American anyone who is Asian is going to feel targeted. I can relate to the writer Jiayang Fang who was cursed at on the street when she took out her trash. Fang said, “I’ve never felt like this in my 27 years in this country.” I feel the same way. In all the years I have lived in NYC, I have never felt afraid to go on the subway, to walk down the street, to walk into a store. But now I am — scared. In the subway, I stand far back away from tracks. On the street, sometimes I pull down my hat, and cover my face, and don sun glasses to cover up my eyes. The writer reports that some Asians are buying guns for protection. While I do understand that the fear of being attacked and the need to protect yourself are both real, I am not sure that fighting back with guns is the answer. More people with guns leads to more violence and people could be killed. This an awful time in America, not just because of corona virus illness and death, but because another disease — hate, prejudice and racism is getting worse.
The genre of this source is factual news report. The purpose is to inform. The writing style is factual and the tone is objective. The audience is the general reading. The NYT has an educated readership, so it’s aiming at readers who have college degrees in general. It’s a reliable source because the NYT has a worldwide readership and is staffed by award-winning writers.
PART 4: NOTABLE QUOTABLES
“Other Asian-Americans — with families from Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines, Myanmar and other places — are facing threats, too, lumped together with Chinese-Americans by a bigotry that does not know the difference” (Tavernise and Oppel).
“Mr. Trump and his Republican allies are intent on calling the coronavirus “the Chinese virus,” rejecting the World Health Organization’s guidance against using geographic locations when naming illnesses, since past names have provoked a backlash” (Tavernise and Oppel).
“In the San Fernando Valley in California, a 16-year-old Asian American was attacked in school by bullies who accused him of having the coronavirus. He was sent to the emergency room” (Tavernise and Oppel).
“ ‘I’ve never felt like this in my 27 yrs in this country,’ ” she [Jiayang Fang] wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. “I’ve never felt afraid to leave my home to take out the trash bc of my face” (Tavernise and Oppel).
The Asian woman “noticed that a man was shouting at her. He was yelling an expletive about China. Then a bus passed, she recalled, and he screamed after it, “Run them over” (Tavernise and Oppel).
