Anti-Asian Rhetoric and Atlanta Shootings

From the outset of the coronavirus pandemic, one way Trump and other right-wing propagandists stoked their culture war is by referring to the coronavirus with phrases such as “the China virus” or “Kung flu.”

Terms like these are explicitly intended to scapegoat a Chinese “other” for the pandemic Trump mismanaged into a deadly disaster far, far worse than it needed to be.

Not surprisingly, racist rhetoric leads to racist and violent action.

There have been thousands of reports of anti-Asian harassment and violence in America over the past year. (The real number is likely far higher, as so many of these incidents never get reported.)

And then came the killing of eight people — six of them Asian women — in Atlanta on Tuesday, March 16.

To All Politicians and Media Personalities

Racist rhetoric leads to racist and violent action. Immediately stop using “China virus” and similarly racist, divisive phrases in reference to COVID-19.