This collection was submitted by four students who shared their differing experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Though their experiences were dissimilar, the importance of community was reflected throughout all of their submissions.

My experience with the COVID-19 pandemic was nothing short of traumatizing, which I feel was the collective experience of many who endured it, being particularly from low-income and BIPOC communities. My family, like many, believed the virus to be something of a hoax, a result of American propaganda, despite that being what they were feeding into. In June, about 15 of my relatives tested positive for the virus after a baby shower, and in July, my eighty-year-old grandmother was hospitalized and fighting for her life for two months after a Fourth of July get-together. In December, my great aunt and uncle passed away from the virus, one shortly after the other, after contracting it from their daughter-in-law who went out of town for Thanksgiving. Throughout all of this, it was difficult to ignore how inaccessible information was to my community. When my grandmother was hospitalized, no one was allowed to accompany her, causing difficulty when the staff around her wanted to communicate with her, as she speaks very little English. Everyone had to be connected via phone call, with staff having to call one of us at any given hour of the day to ask things as simply as, “Are you feeling okay?” to my grandmother. I think the complications of misunderstanding and being misunderstood extend throughout many Asian communities in addition to my own, due to the lack of accurate information translated and circulated throughout our communities. For example, with vaccine appointments, it was highly complex and inaccessible, especially to those who didn’t speak English or a more common immigrant language like Spanish or Mandarin Chinese. My family also struggled, with me returning home for breaks from school and spending hours helping different relatives try to sign up for an appointment. Even further beyond this, many more refused the vaccine and the existence of the virus because of how information travels throughout communities and the new addition of internet and news source propaganda many elders are quick to give into. I think this shows a reliance on community, whether positively or negatively, to access information and support because existing systems are not made in our best interests.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, my family was extra alert and more aware of the tense relationship between our identities as Asian Americans and the rest of the world. We relied on our community for safety and security as our identities were being attacked. When the pandemic first started, I remember my parents being able to locate and secure masks, gloves, and other personal protective equipment from our community. Because the pandemic made people go into a panic mode and overbuy and stocking up on food and toilet paper, my mom’s friends, and friends of friends would help us gather the necessary supplies and just the bare minimum. They helped to make sure everyone was protected and safe and made access and accommodations for us. The beginning of the pandemic also stopped my dad from going to work for a month but our community helped provide information and resources while his company figured out how to continue operating. My mom and I were essential workers and kept working to help serve our community, but it was scary initially to be always going in and out of the house going to work, potentially bringing outside germs and the virus into our household (luckily it didn’t happen). At the height of the virus, anti-Asian hate crimes were also surging and gained national and international attention. This made us more conscious of our identities and safety since we could become targets. Oakland Chinatown was also under attack and we quickly spread information and safety for our community with ways on how to protect ourselves. I think overall, this pandemic has really taught us how to connect and create a strong relationship with our peers and community. Our community itself was under a test of strength but, we knew that we could depend on each other.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, I was yet again reminded of how the healthcare system was and is widely inaccessible for immigrants and for the asian community. My mother has Crohn’s Disease, a disease that makes you immunodeficient, and made her especially vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic. We made sure to never leave the house as much as we could, and the responsibility of getting things we needed fell on me to make sure that we were being as safe as we could while getting groceries and anything else we needed. People in our community also were really helpful in making sure that we were able to get everything we needed for our household. Since my dad still had to go into work during the pandemic, it was a very stressful time and we had to make sure that we were keeping our mom safe. When it was around the time that the covid vaccine was becoming more available, it was clear that the healthcare system was not suited to take care of our immigrant communities. None of my family or my mom knew how to access a vaccine appointment if you were immunocompromised. The only way my mom was able to get an appointment was because people in our community were willing to help and call and ask how she would be able to get an appointment. The reason why I bring this up is because Asian Americans, Asian diaspora and Asian immigrants heavily rely on community, and I think that this was especially highlighted during the pandemic. This phenomenon also contrasted with what was also seen in the United States, which was clear displays of American individualism. I wish that especially during the height of the pandemic, there were more widely distributed resources about the virus in different languages, as well as more information during the vaccine distribution. It felt like there was no support at all, and the only support that was available to us was community support.

During the pandemic, I would consider my experience to be similar to many others living in my community, but I am extremely grateful as no one in my family or friends has gotten Covid. My family has become more attentive towards details, such as sanitizing everything we might come in contact with, since our grandma currently lives with us, having conditions such as asthma . Although quarantine was highly stressful, my situation was not as troublesome as compared to others. Along with Covid 19, Asian hate crime rate slowly increased. Living in Irvine, which consists predominantly of Asians, I have never heard of or experienced asian hate crime here. Unfortunately, this is not the case for other Asian American communities around America. It was not unusual to see another attack on Asians on the news, especially when it’s against elders. Many of these attacks are racially motivated, since attackers would often talk about how these Asians had brought Covid to America, and often use racial slurs against the victims. In response to these attacks, many Asian Americans have bonded together in order to combat these issues,  further uniting the different Asian American communities. I brought this up since I believe Covid 19 has shown how strong communities can be when united, especially when everyone is working towards the same goal. To prevent these hate crimes from occurring again, it is important to raise awareness and to educate the public.