Empathy and Preventing Discrimination Against Covid-19 (Building Empathy and Preventing Discrimination Against Covid-19 by Junior High School Students)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is still happening all over the world. Until now, it still hasn't shown that the pandemic will end, because cases of this virus are still going up and down and several new virus variants have even been discovered. In certain cases, there are still restrictions on visits to and from certain countries, in order to break the chain of spread of this case. This situation then gave rise to a new phenomenon in society, namely social stigma or negative associations against a person or group of people suffering from Covid-19. They are labeled, stereotyped, discriminated against, treated differently, and experience status harassment because of their association with the coronavirus. The purpose of this study is to find out how to understand empathy and how to deal with people suffering from Covid-19 by students of SMPN 88 West Jakarta. The method used is qualitative. The results obtained are that students can understand and apply empathetic behavior to family and others when suffering from Covid-19.