We’ve seen a disturbing rise in racism and xenophobia with the arrival and spread of coronavirus. When we first started hearing about it, it was spoken about as if it was just something that people living in China had to deal with, but as it started to spread across the globe, the attitude began to shift into something that blamed China and all Chinese people as if they’d deliberately caused this.
It’s an attitude that’s not just on the streets – although it’s definitely there, we’ve seen a spike in hate crime committed towards Asian people all over the globe – but all the way to the White House.
We all know Donald Trump has said a thousand stupid things bu the time breakfast rolls around, but this time he’s defended a White House official who used the term ‘Kung Flu’ to describe coronavirus saying that Asian Americans wouldn’t be negatively affected by the term at all.
Actually, he said that “I think they’d probably would agree with it 100%. It comes from China. There’s nothing not to agree on.”
This comes a couple of days after Trump himself sent out a Tweet calling it ‘Chinese Virus’.
It’s not surprising behavior coming from Trump, but if the leader of the United States of America is saying that ‘Kung Flu’ and other racist nicknames for coronavirus are perfectly acceptable, what message does that send? That it’s totally fine to yell at, or lash out at Asian people we see on the street? After all, if it’s the ‘Kung Flu’, it’s their fault right?
Wrong, and during a time where we’re all scared, all battling to buy groceries, and all trying to navigate a socially distant life, we don’t need racism thrown into the mix. Perhaps by this point racism is inextricable from the coronavirus pandemic, but we don’t need to make it any worse by giving COVID-19 racist nicknames.
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