The Asian community has already seen an increase in racist behavior aimed at them, now the president is adding to the xenophobia. He is joining other Republicans such as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) in calling coronavirus, the “Chinese virus.”
Or perhaps he got it from Tucker Carlson who has been referring to it as the Chinese virus or Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who refers to it as the “Wuhan virus.” NBC News writes:
Many officials, including the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have criticized the phrase as inaccurate and potentially harmful in promoting racist associations between the virus and those from China.
The comments prompted massive backlash from many social media users, including New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who said the tweet was misplacing blame and could put more Asian Americans in danger.
And Trump didn’t just tweet this term once in the last 24 hours, he actually did it twice.
The Washington Post cites an evangelical leader who condemned Trump. Eugene Cho now runs a large Christian nonprofit in Washington state called Bread for the World:
Cho, who was born in Korea and immigrated to the United States when he was 6, said he knows three people who have been assaulted in the past couple of weeks, incidents he believes are tied to the spread of the coronavirus.
“I can’t speak for all Asians,” he said. “I know for myself and my family, we’re not just contending with a health crisis. … There might be backlash verbal and physical.”
One White House reporter faced a racist incident directly from a White House official today.
