{"id":45806,"date":"2021-12-10T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-10T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/?p=45806"},"modified":"2021-12-10T10:57:40","modified_gmt":"2021-12-10T10:57:40","slug":"omicron-variant-panic-with-a-sprinkle-of-racism-and-xenophobia-towards-africans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/omicron-variant-panic-with-a-sprinkle-of-racism-and-xenophobia-towards-africans\/","title":{"rendered":"Omicron: panic with a sprinkle of racism and xenophobia towards Africans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Covid<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Social media has been in an uproar due to the release of the new ‘red list’<\/a> countries being added to the list by the UK government, which only consists of African nations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the 28th of November, a Spanish newspaper ‘La Tribuna de Albacete’ published an animated picture, depicting the Omicron variant as animated characters with brown skin, kinky hair, big lips and inside a boat with a South African flag which looked like it was approaching European land, because of the flag waving on the shores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On that very day, a German newspaper ‘Die Rheinpfalz’ published a front page story with the headline “The virus from Africa is with us” followed by a picture of two people of Black African ethnicity. Then on December 2nd, the Bangkok Post wrote an article with the headline, “Government hunts for African visitors.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The careless disrespect for Africans was met with global outrage and upset from many Africans and those worldwide, regardless of ethnicity. In reaction to the Spanish cartoon, the World Health Organisation Director General Tedros Adlhanom Ghebreyesus tweeted. “It pains me that shows of racism like this still plague the challenges facing the world today. Caricaturing people crammed in a boat bringing a virus to Europe is disgusting.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/DrTedros\/status\/1467950700806217733?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1467950700806217733%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.npr.org%2Fsections%2Fgoatsandsoda%2F2021%2F12%2F07%2F1061896560%2Fopinion-im-shocked-by-the-racist-cartoons-and-travel-bans-sparked-by-omicron\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

South African politician and former leader of the opposition party Democratic Alliance (DA, also went to Twitter to share his response, writing “… The omicron response from the international community has exposed deep-seated anti-Africa sentiment.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/MmusiMaimane\/status\/1467375435264704512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1467375435264704512%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.citizen.co.za%2Fnews%2Fcovid-19%2F2936531%2Fspanish-newspaper-apologises-racist-omicron-cartoon%2F\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dr Ayoade Alakija, the co-chair of the African Union’s Vaccine Delivery Alliance, said “The ban is based on politics, not science.” Dr Alakija blamed the situation on the lack of equitable global vaccine rollout, she said “Had the first SARS-COVID virus, the one they identified in China last year, originated in Africa, it is clear the world would have locked us away and thrown away the key. There would have been no urgency to develop vaccines because they would have been expendable. Africa would have been known as the continent of COVID.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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