Race and Coronavirus: Asian Americans bear brunt of COVID-19 blame

Lifelong San Francisco resident Sandy Fong-Navalta was on Muni recently, heading home from work when she witnessed a white male yell at an elderly Asian man for being a “rude, f—ing ignorant Chinaman.” The Asian man had put his hand up when someone got too close to him on the bus. “You’re the reason coronavirus came to America!” the white male continued in response to the elderly man’s gesture.

Fong-Navalta, whose sister-in-law is Race and Coronavirus co-founder Pati Navalta, said she has witnessed or felt tension in San Francisco quite a bit since the first reports of coronavirus — a homeless man recently told her she was “spreading the corona” — and that it has come “to the point where I’m almost desensitized to it.”