Eagle News — New York City is one of the most diverse cities in the world. Where over 37 percent of New Yorkers were born in another country, and more than 800 different languages are spoken. But even in “the Big Apple,” racism is still prevalent today.
Especially with the COIVD-19 pandemic. With the virus believed to have originated from Wuhan province in China, Asian-Americans are being targeted. According to the CDC, “fear and anxiety about a disease can lead to social stigma(1) toward people, places, or things.”
Ester Guerzon, a fitness instructor and a part-time singer/actress on Broadway, has been living in America for over 20 years. And being from Filipino descent, Ester didn’t believe that she would be a victim of the stigmatism and racism.
“It was a Friday broad daylight, I was actually speaking to my sister when I noticed that a man coming from behind me was uncomfortably, uncomfortably close.”
What happened next, would change Ester’s life.
“And then he just spat. Three times. I literally saw saliva coming out of his mouth. He was that close to that close to my face.”
“I wasn’t expecting for this incident to happen where I was in New York.” Ester, was in the West Village—known for being the center of bohemian lifestyle since the early 1900s. With famous American writers and thinkers like Allen Ginsberg and artists like Diane Arbus as its residents. If you were to describe the West Village in one word, it would be “progressive.”
“It’s one thing to hear [racial slurs]. It’s one thing when people make fun of your skin colour or you look but it’s another thing when they become physical or like this when they they spit at you,” says Ester. “It’s to another level it’s rude and…I felt so violated.”
“Sadly you know at a time like this when you should all be worried about the coronavirus about staying healthy this should be the last thing absolute last thing for us to think about.”
That’s when Ester, and her husband Albert, decided to act.
Ester reached out to her friend, artist Diane Phelan, who started the social media account #RacismIsAVirus—bringing awareness to the racism and stigmatism that not only Asian-Americans face today, but all races.
Ester explains that “[we] just want to hear other stories other people how they cope it’s very important to be heard.”
“The day that it happened to me I felt like I couldn’t talk about it. Almost like, it’s not a big deal. I shouldn’t talk about it I shouldn’t share it. But it’s very important to be heard to talk about it to open up about it. It’s such a bad feeling that no one should go through it alone.”
© Eagle News