Starker on 18/3/2020 at 17:38
Stoking fear by invoking racial stereotypes and dogwhistles and doing things like calling the virus kung-flu is textbook racism.
Renzatic on 18/3/2020 at 17:42
That initial travel ban wouldn't have done too much, because it wasn't Chinese expats who brought the disease here. It was our citizens coming home from China, dragging it in behind them. Trump's travel ban was a half measure at the time.
There's also the question why Trump decided to ban Nigeria at the time, which had all of 2 cases at the time, and wasn't exactly a popular travel destination to and fro, while leaving more heavily trafficked nations free and clear to come and go as they please. Trump's initial decisions may or may not have been racist, there's always room for assumption on the issue, and it's hard to say so definitively, but they were entirely useless.
Starker on 18/3/2020 at 17:59
It's not like the US doesn't have a history with this.
Quote:
(
https://qz.com/1819584/coronavirus-resurfaces-uss-racist-past-with-disease-outbreaks/)
[...]
In the UK and US, incidents of physical and verbal attacks on Asians and Asian Americans spiked; Chinatown neighborhoods across the country saw a near 50% drop in foot traffic; misleading media reports about the origin of the virus used exoticizing narratives around Chinese meat markets.
This of course isn't a new phenomenon. Similar reactions occurred during the SARS outbreak in 2003, with individuals, groups, and media outlets spreading false information that, in the words of medical anthropologist Laura Eichelberger “resurfaced to blame Chinese culture and people for disease.”
This pattern of conflating race with a specific disease is a constant thread in American history. To name a few, Irish immigrants were associated with cholera epidemics in the 1830s, and some venereal diseases like syphilis were mislabeled as a “black disease,” leading to horrific and inhumane treatment of African American men during the Tuskegee syphilis experiment. In Europe, Jews were widely blamed for the bubonic plague.
[...]
Bringing us back to the present mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic, one can see that although we have moved past much of the debunked racial science of the past, these narratives that confuse and conflate race and national origin with a “natural” propensity for disease or infection are pernicious, and not easily dispelled.
Scientifically, we know that viruses are race-blind, and its origin and spread has nothing to do with skin color, features, or culture. Humans, however, are not race-blind. The rise in violence against Asians around the world proved that.
The beleaguered US public health system is now doing what it can to stop further spread of Covid-19. Imagine how different things could have been in the US if the government had taken early measures to prevent the disease spreading instead of expending energy on attacking people for their perceived connection to a disease that, as it turns out, is anything but foreign—and far from ‘totally under control'”?
[...]
Also, what possible benefit is there to antagonise China and Chinese people at this point in time? What is there to gain by calling it a Chinese virus? Do racist incidents against Asians in the US somehow make it easier to deal with the virus? Does it make it easier to learn from the experiences of Chinese doctors? Does it make China more likely to supply the US with the things that are so desperately needed to contain the outbreak?
jkcerda on 18/3/2020 at 18:04
you guys kidding? the idea was to flatten the curb.
Renzatic on 18/3/2020 at 18:37
So you're saying that we should go ahead and start beating the shit out of Asian looking people to flatten the curve. Okay then. Let's do it.
Just keep in mind that this guy is ethnically Mexican
Inline Image:
https://i.imgur.com/EOJLL5o.jpgjkcerda on 18/3/2020 at 19:11
then deport him after you beat him, works for me.........
Renzatic on 18/3/2020 at 19:15
Also, you look like a middle eastern dude. I could report you for selling unlicensed falafels. I'LL DO IT! :mad:
jkcerda on 18/3/2020 at 19:23
allak akcbar ........... or however you spell it :p
Renzatic on 18/3/2020 at 19:25
I was gonna take that picture you posted in Costco, and put a bunch of Urdu writing in there all meme style, but then I thought I shouldn't be copy pasting stuff I can't read. I could accidentally be calling for your death or something, or end up getting you put on a watch list.
Starker on 18/3/2020 at 19:27
Quote Posted by jkcerda
you guys kidding? the idea was to flatten the curb.
And how does it flatten the curve when you equate immigrants and foreigners of certain race with a disease? Have to say, that article of yours was a real insidious piece, simultaneously trying to whitewash European colonism of the Americas (as if the colonisers were just peaceful settlers trying to integrate into Indian societies and live peacefully among them) and to cast non-white immigrants as an invasion of terrorism, crime, and disease.
