The first reason Serhan and Mclaughlin’s essay connects with the previous The readings are that all of the articles talk about being compassionate to others around you. Bloom talks about how our empathy can show our prejudices and act almost as a spotlight to the people that are like us but doesn’t shine very brightly on people we find unfamiliar. In Serhan and Mclaughlin’s essay they talk about how Asian prejudice is rampant because of the pandemic. People don’t understand that Asian people are going through the stress of the pandemic and that they didn’t cause the pandemic, so they think that they are automatic carriers. The racism towards Asians has spread to the restaurant industry in San Francisco. According to San Francisco restaurateurs, “business has dropped since the start of the outbreak[the pandemic]”(Serhan and Mclaughlin 3). In addition, “The Society for Community Organization, a local human-rights group,…identified more than 100 restaurants where restaurant owners refused to serve Mandarin speakers and nonlocals”(Serhan and Mclaughlin 3). In other words, people don’t want to serve Asians or eat at Chinese restaurants simply because they are prejudiced against Asians.

The second reason is that people are self-centered and only think about themselves. This is the central idea of DFW’s essay. This idea is an idea in Serhan and McLaughlin’s essay too. People are so focused on their own safety that they don’t understand that Asians aren’t causing the virus and don’t want to believe that anyone can spread the virus. This belief that Asians are causing the pandemic leads to the violent attacks on individuals such as the student from Singapore, Jonathon Mok and the disinvitation of the Vietnamese artist that was accepted into the London art fair( Serhan and McLaughlin 3). In other words, people believe that they don’t deserve to be treated as equal simply because they are from Asia or are Asian just because someone who is not Asian feels like they want to be safe from COVID.