1/ Labeling COVID-19 'Chinese Flu' isn't just racist. It's racism in the service of political power: scapegoating so as to deflect attention from the failures of the administration to respond to the virus in its early days bc they were focused on public image over public health..
2/ It's part of the politics of prejudice that has always defined Trumpism. This point is key. Merely calling it racist is not enough. Indeed, Trump would like us to focus on that alone. It allows him to say the left only cares about being PC, while people are sick and dying...
3/ But by emphasizing the cynicism of his racial/ethnic/national labeling -- and how he uses it to deflect from his own inadequacies -- we tie his racism to deep-seated mistrust of politicians, and show how he weaponizes bigotry to maintain his own power and position.
4/ This also avoids the trap of seeming to call his supporters bigots. By focusing on his cynical deployment of xenophobic tropes for political ends we make it about HIM and HIS deplorable-ness. We say "he is trying to distract you/us by making you fear certain people/nations..."
5/ ...rather than deal with the problem. After all, how will insisting on calling it "Chinese" or "foreign" speed up the testing needed? Or make a vaccine happen quicker? Or help one person laid off because of the economic downturn? If anything it will do the opposite...
6/ Racial/cultural/national scapegoating will lead us down paths that will make things worse: refusing to import respirator masks FROM China to help (which Trump is doing), blocking migration, which will lead to food shortages due to fewer ag workers (which Trump is doing)...
7/ And no, labeling it Chinese is not just factual; it's not merely about noting its origin. First, it is having an impact that is racist: people across the country are reporting anti-Asian bias being directed at them in the wake of this. That is not a coincidence...
8/ And it is calculated to cause people to have these associations with foreign others, for the purpose of stoking bias and assigning blame. As for the "Chinese food" comparison (and asking "is that racist too?"), it's not as clever as right wingers think when they ask it...
9/ In fact it proves my point. When you ask your kids "hey, do you want Chinese food tonight or pizza" when ordering takeout, why do you do it? You do it bc you're seeking to trigger an association in their head that will help them think about a category and make a decision...
10/ In this case, an association w/prior meals they either liked or didn't, so they can choose what to eat tonight. With "Chinese virus" the same is true: people are trying to trigger an association. WHY?...There are only two possible answers...
11/ First, that the Trump administration and Tucker Carlson are just incredibly committed to geographic accuracy, for its own sake, so that, ya know, if you're ever in a game of Trivial Pursuit many years from now and the question is: where did COVID-19 begin?, you'll know...
12/ Or second, that they want us to make the association because it will focus our anger on a foreign other, feed the xenophobic tendencies already being stoked by Trumpism previously, and feed his isolationist, America-first agenda...
13/ Any rational person knows it's the latter of these. So it's politics plain and simple, which makes the racism even more disgusting than it would be on its own. And it's dangerous bc this virus shows us we are interconnected. There is no nationalism that can protect us..
14/ Global travel & global supply chains (like the chain for pork, which spread H1N1 in '09) are a fact of life. Unless we are willing to block both (which would destroy the economy), and basically become North Korea (shut off from the world), we will have to face these things..
15/...and Trumpism, with its nationalistic hubris, xenophobia and willingness to go it alone w/o help from global agencies like WHO (whose tests we rejected bc we wanted an Amurkan one, by God!), and disdain for the UN as an institution, is uniquely ill suited to handle it...
16/ Viruses like this in the future could emerge anywhere. On hog farms in NC (as the CDC said H1N1 did), or in Mexico (as other researchers suggest about H1N1), or in Europe or Kansas (as some evidence suggests about the 1918 Flu pandemic)...or again in China...
17/ In fact, China is likely. NOT because of what they eat FFS (I was offered squirrel in TX before, so..), but bc when you have 1/5 of the worlds population, statistics say you'll be more likely the epicenter of a human virus than the U.S., with 4% of it. It's math, not culture.
18/The task is to attack racial scapegoating as a politics of prejudice: an attempt to manipulate the public with a bright shiny object like racial/cultural/ethnic blame, for the purpose of wielding and maintaining power. It's not "straight talk" but deliberately crooked talk...
19/...intended to divert our attention from the massive failures of the administration to take this seriously at its inception, thereby escalating the crisis. It shows Trump is no different than any other dishonest politician the public hates. And just like all scapegoating...
20/ ...his version of it will not save one life, replace one job, replace retirement funds lost in the crashing stock market, or prevent the next such virus from emerging. END
