Back in the 1900s AIDS and HIV are terms associated with the LGBTQ community or homosexuality (1). This association with a limited population of people made the issue less explosive to the general population, thus leading to less to no government establishment or attention towards AIDS and HIV(1). Yet, it was well known that such disease will cause death, incurable, and dangerous to the community.
Homophobia and xenophobia at the time was expressed through the film Philadelphia. Like the word, phobia suggests discrimination is born from the concept of fear towards the unknown. Likewise, Mr. Miller, the lawyer for Mr. Beckett, openly expressed the societal fear towards aids through the opening argument in the court ‘they did what most of us would do with aids which is to get it and everybody who has it as far away as possible'(2). This idea of separating individuals into groups and abandoning them to protect one’s self is further emphasised in the attack towards Mr. Becket’s sexuality and lifestyle from the opposition lawyer. Where the opposition lawyer in her opening argument deliberate states that ‘the lifestyle and reckless behaviour’ of Mr. Becket ‘cut his own life short’. Such allegations suggest a shifting of blame towards Mr. Becket by shamming his identity as a homosexual individual. This is evident in Ms. Benedict’s hearing as she was not fired for having the same disease Mr. Becket has. Towards the ending of the movie, as more information was presented, both Mr. Miller and the Juries in court defied the stereotype against Mr. Becket. Mr. Miller demonstrated this by intentionally touching Mr. Becket’s face to help put on his medical equipment, in contrast to the beginning where he was constantly thinking that ‘I don’t want this person to touch me’. Thus the movie Philadelphia suggests that discrimination is born from fear of the unknown, and by increasing understanding, such discriminations would be demolished to some extent.
Yet the Covid pandemic has once again repeated the events that happened in the film Philadelphia.
During the Covid 19 pandemic, president Trump continuously labeled COVID – 19 as the ‘Chinese virus’, which directed the mass population to implicit their frustration towards the asian population worldwide.
This is expressed in the increasing number of incidents including asian victims worldwide, including Australia where the Chinese education bureau has taken steps to warn its students about the danger of continuing their education in Australia due to the increasing ‘Racist incidents’ during the coronavirus pandemic (3). From personal experience, although I have not experienced the extreme racist attacks during the pandemic, I have on various occasions heard racist comments towards either myself or other asian individuals walking on the streets. In addition, a well-known newspaper agency in Australia, Herald Sun, published an article titled ‘Minister slams schools for turning children away, Corona Chaos, Chinese virus Pandamonium’ on the front page of its newspaper in Jan 2020 (4). Which deepens the blame on the Chinese communities by mentioning negatively correlated words such as ‘chaos’ and ‘slams.’ Furthermore the made up word Pandamonium relates to the word pandemonium which contains correlations with the concept of hell (5). By switching out ‘pande’ with ‘panda’ which is a symbol of china this article further demonises the Chinese population. Interestingly there is a horror movie released later in March 2020 with the name ‘Pandamonium'(6). There were similar comments placed on other newspapers as well.
Although that these extreme actions are from a minority of people in the society, there is no denying that these events create paradigm shifts in the societies’ perceptions toward differences in the human population. The discrimination against the asian communities during this period of time could be due to the fear of unknown, which parallels with the storyline presented by Philadelphia and experienced by the LGBTQ community regarding HIV and AIDS in the early stages of the disease.
References
- Aizenman, N., 2019. NPR Cookie Consent and Choices. [online] Npr.org. Available at: <https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/02/09/689924838/how-to-demand-a-medical-breakthrough-lessons-from-the-aids-fight>
- Philadelphia. 1993. [DVD] Directed by J. Demme. Hollywood: TriStars Pictures.
- Birtles, B., 2020. Chinese students warned against studying in Australia due to ‘racist incidents’. [online] Abc.net.au. Available at: <https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-09/china-warns-students-not-to-return-to-australia-after-coronaviru/12337044>
- fu, J., 2020. How Australian media hide their racist comments during the Covid pandemic. [online] Sydneytoday.com. Available at: <https://www.sydneytoday.com/content-102046557384010>
- Merriam-webster.com. n.d. Definition of PANDEMONIUM. [online] Available at: <https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pandemonium> .
- IMDb. n.d. Pandamonium (2020) – IMDb. [online] Available at: <https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9515298/> .
Clips
CNET, 2020. Let’s talk about why ‘Chinese virus’ is such a harmful label. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEHJ05KbbVQ>