‘I Know Who Caused COVID-19’: Pandemics and Xenophobia

This book explores prejudice towards groups who are thought to have caused and spread the COVID-19 virus. The book examines four cases around the world: the residents of Wuhan, China; Ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in the USA, Britain and Israel; African-Americans in the United States and Black/Asian/Mixed Ethnic communities in Britain; and ‘White’ right-wing groups in American and Europe.

The book examines stereotyping and the false attribution of blame towards these groups, as well as what happens when a collective is actually at fault, and how the community deals with these conflicting issues.

This is a timely, cogent examination of blame and xenophobia, which have been brought to the surface by the COVID-19 pandemic.