Asian-Americans: Hey Republicans, could you please stop calling Covid-19 "China flu" because it encourages people to say racist shit to us.
Republicans: It's just a word. Come on. Lighten up.
Also Republicans: Calling me a racist is the worst thing in the world & made me cry.
Republicans: It's just a word. Come on. Lighten up.
Also Republicans: Calling me a racist is the worst thing in the world & made me cry.
The crying reference. The crier here, FWIW, once said a campaign rally that he's hoping to send Obama back to Kenya. Which is, if you'll excuse me for saying so, a racist thing to say.
A few more stories to add to the emo GOP racist thread. In 1966 Ronald Reagan met with a group of Black Republicans to try to secure their support. They told him that his support for Goldwater was concerning, because his campaign was bigoted. Reagan stormed out in tears. 
That story comes from this great book by @LeahRigueur. amazon.com/Loneliness-Bla…
Here's a moment when Bill Buckley, who carried on friendly correspondence with many right wing antisemites from the 1950s thru the 1980s & employed more than a few at the National Review, is hopping mad about someone saying the right has a bigotry problem.
Here's the thing about these emo conservative racists. Take the Reagan example. He could've said, "it pains me to think that you consider me to be a racist. Please tell me what I've done to give you that impression." But no, he stormed out and said the question was "demagogic."
The charge of racism makes otherwise calm and collected figures like Reagan lose their sh*t. Now why is that? Why can people who get criticized all the time somehow not find it within themselves to respond effectively to this one, specific criticism?
One last horrible twist to this story. The right wing talking point now is this: "if you call people racist for calling it 'the China virus' then you're spreading Chinese propaganda." For crying out loud. Calling a conservative racist is now traitorous?
