Politicians Comments Concerning Asian-Americans
Former President, Donald Trump and Republican Politician/Current Speaker of House, Kevin McCarthy used the terms "Chinese Coronavirus" and "Chinese Virus" when referring to Covid-19 in tweets. On the last page, we dove into the facts concerning the rise of Asian-American hate crimes in the wake of the pandemic. Here, we discuss how words have impact. John Wang, the director of Asian American Advancing Justice, notes that words have impact, especially when they are spoken by politicians (Kandil, 2020). When the President of the United States is using these words, it becomes even more problematic, due to the sheer number of people paying attention.
Tying this concept back to class, the reading, “Anti-Asian Racism and Covid-19,” discusses how saying “Chinese Virus” is racist (Ho, 2020). Ho explains that using this phrase links a virus with an entire group of people, Asian Americans. Unfortunately, this harmful rhetoric is nothing new. In fact, it is part of the American tradition of putting the blame on immigrants for spreading disease (Kandil, 2020). These historical connotations are important to understand the context of these offensive tweets. In American history, Chinese immigrants were forced to live in dirty, crowded areas (Ho, 2020) which later became known as Chinatowns. In other words, using the words “Chinese Virus,” revives and encourages offensive stereotypes that are ingrained in American history to begin with. In fact, according to NBC, from March 18, 2020 to March 26, 2020, Stop AAPI Hate has counted over 650 reports of Asian American discrimination (Kandil, 2020). Words matter, especially when they come from the mouths (and keyboards) of the United States President and other politicians.
According to BBC, President Biden actually signed an executive action banning the use of these offensive phrases within Federal government (Cabral, 2021). This is a step in the right direction.
References
Cabral , S. (2021, May 21). Covid 'hate crimes' against Asian Americans on rise. BBC News. Retrieved April 30, 2023, from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56218684
Ho , J. (2020, July 16). Anti-asian racism and covid-19. Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine. Retrieved April 30, 2023, from https://www.colorado.edu/asmagazine/2020/04/08/anti-asian-racism-and-covid-19
Kandil , C. Y. (2020, March 26). Asian Americans report over 650 racist acts over last week, New Data says. NBCNews.com. Retrieved April 30, 2023, from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/asian-americans-report-nearly-500-racist-acts-over-last-week-n1169821