A 23-year-old East Asian man who used to study in London has spoken out about racism linked to the contagious Coronavirus after suffering facial injuries in a racist attack in London.
He posted this assault on his Facebook account
His name is Jonathan Mok, he wrote about this ordeal in a public post on his Facebook account a few days back where he has given all the details how he was attacked by a group of people on Oxford Street which is a busy shopping area in the centre of the British capital.
He got very much injured due to this incident
Jonathan Mok said he was attacked in London which caused him many injuries to his right eye. He also posted two photographs of his face on social media, explaining “One image was taken in the mirror and hence, the laterally inverted image. The image that seems so be much swollen was taken as a selfie, and the bruising only developed in the following day.” The photo was taken by him after the day of the assault. The attack comes at a time of increasing xenophobia against people of East Asian appearance in the UK and around the world.
“The guy who tried to kick me then said, ‘I don’t want your coronavirus in my country’, before swinging another sucker punch at me, which resulted in my face exploding with blood (from my nose),” wrote Mok.
London police are investigating this matter
Mok said doctors told him the assailants had left him with “a few fractures” in his face and he might need surgery. London’s police are also investigating his case.
They said: “Enquiries continue to identify the suspects; including an assessment of available CCTV,” said police in a statement. “There has been no arrest at this stage.”
This is not the first time he is being attacked
Mok said this was not the first time he had suffered the racist attack in the past few weeks and he wanted to highlight this important issue in front of everyone.
“I’ve studied in London for the past 2 years and every year, I am subjected to racist remarks (whether innocent or made with malice),” he wrote. “To those people who told me that London isn’t racist, think again.”
Mok’s case is one of those incidents that have happened in the UK during the global coronavirus outbreak, and hate crime awareness group Stop Hate UK recently raised concerns.
“Stop Hate UK has recently received an increasing number of calls, across our helpline areas, from people experiencing racism, discrimination and verbal abuse, arising from perceptions that they are members of the Chinese community and therefore likely to be carriers of the coronavirus,” said the organization in a statement.
“We find this deeply concerning and we want our Helpline areas to know that we are here to help, advise and reassure anyone affected by such incidents.”
The US is witnessing the rise of such incidents happening
US ha continuously been seeing the rise of such discrimination with experts blaming ignorance and misinformation for racist and xenophobic attacks against people who appear to be East Asian.
“With news of the coronavirus, we’ve seen an uptick in fear of people who look like this,” said Rosalind Chou, a sociology professor at Georgia State University. “Real people are affected.”
Chinese Canadians say they’ve experienced racism with the spread of coronavirus around the world. pic.twitter.com/Lczoxm00rz
— AJ+ (@ajplus) February 19, 2020
The world is in the grips of an epidemic more dangerous than coronavirus – racism https://t.co/UaLq9S3UIs — #AJOpinion, by @HamidDabashi pic.twitter.com/PFPNaEV8B5
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) February 21, 2020
Also read: How The Coronavirus Outbreak In China Is Affecting The World Economy?
