From public eruptions of anti-Asian violence to emerging data on the respective mortality rates of white and ethnic minority healthcare workers, it became rapidly clear that the pandemic landed in ways that followed well-worn lines of racism in the UK.

In this episode, we hear from Dr Nikita Simpson on the phenomenon of the ‘Leicester Lepers’, in which racialised communities were subject to increased stigma over their supposed inability to follow public health advice. Dr Fred Cooper explores how complex systems of structural racism and shame and individual experiences of public shaming intersected, and how shame was heightened by a political refusal to directly address questions of racism and race.

To further understand how shame, stigma and racism intersected during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, see the chapter Coughing while Asian: Shame and Racialised Bodies by Fred Cooper, Luna Dolezal and Arthur Rose in Covid-19 and Shame: Political Emotions and Public Health in the UK. 

Nikita Simpson’s work with Laura Bear and the Covid and Care research group at LSE also deals significantly with questions of shame and stigma, and you can find out more about their work - and read their project reports - here. Nini Fang and Shan-Jan Sarah Liu also have an excellent article on ‘being Yellow women in the time of COVID-19’, which addresses anti-Asian racism and shame. 

Thank you to Alice Waterson. Further thanks to Jennifer Allan, Ray Earwicker, João Florêncio, Tanisha Spratt and Nikita Simpson for contributing to the series. 

This podcast series is based on the research findings in the book Covid-19 and Shame: Political Emotions and Public Health in the UK, by Fred Cooper, Luna Dolezal and Arthur Rose.

This podcast series was funded by the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) grant number AH/V013483/1.

Further support has come from the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health (WCCEH) at the University of Exeter, the Shame and Medicine project, the Scenes of Shame and Stigma in COVID-19 project and the Wellcome Trust grant number 217879/Z/19/Z.

Hosted by Paul McNally and produced by Develop Audio.

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