diff --git a/src/python/grpcio/grpc/_cython/cygrpc.pyx b/src/python/grpcio/grpc/_cython/cygrpc.pyx
index 3967c3045f7..579bac7b8af 100644
--- a/src/python/grpcio/grpc/_cython/cygrpc.pyx
+++ b/src/python/grpcio/grpc/_cython/cygrpc.pyx
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@ cimport cpython
 
 import pkg_resources
 import os.path
+import sys
 
 # TODO(atash): figure out why the coverage tool gets confused about the Cython
 # coverage plugin when the following files don't have a '.pxi' suffix.
@@ -50,10 +51,11 @@ cdef class _ModuleState:
   cdef bint is_loaded
 
   def __cinit__(self):
-    filename = pkg_resources.resource_filename(
-        'grpc._cython', '_windows/grpc_c.64.python')
-    if not pygrpc_load_core(filename):
-      raise ImportError('failed to load core gRPC library')
+    if 'win32' in sys.platform:
+      filename = pkg_resources.resource_filename(
+          'grpc._cython', '_windows/grpc_c.64.python')
+      if not pygrpc_load_core(filename):
+        raise ImportError('failed to load core gRPC library')
     grpc_init()
     self.is_loaded = True