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Source: Flickr/Gage Skidmore
President Trump’s insistence on calling COVID-19 “the Chinese Flu” is the kind of race-baiting speech that can lead to verbal and physical attacks on Asian-Americans.
Yesterday, he turned the volume up even higher with a racist dog whistle in an exchange with a reporter about the term “Kung Flu.”
Source: Wikimedia
Earlier in the day, Kellyanne Conway had labeled the phrase “wrong” and “highly offensive,” but that doesn’t slow down Trump, who not only asks the reporter to repeat it but then repeats it himself!
Q: — the “Kung flu” —
Trump: Say the term again.
Q: The — a person at the White House used the —
Trump: No, just the term.
Q: — term “Kung flu.” My question is —
Trump: “Kung flu”?
Source: Pixabay
Richard Wong, executive director of the American School Counseling Association, responded, saying that it is difficult to teach children respect “when leaders not only condone but use inflammatory language.”
#POTUS said calling #coronavirus the #ChineseVirus and #KungFlu isn’t offensive and Chinese-Americans agree 100%. As a Chinese-American I disagree 100%. A goal of #SchoolCounseling is to teach respect. That’s hard to do when leaders not only condone but use inflammatory language.
— Richard Wong (@rwongASCA) March 19, 2020
Source: Screenshot/YouTube
New York Times contributor Wajahat Ali notes that the racist term hits close to home for at least one Trump cabinet official, suggesting that Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and her husband Mitch McConnell might not be on board with Trump’s word choice.
Can someone ask Elaine Chao, the wife of Mitch McConnell and Trump's Transportation Secretary, how she feels about "Kung Flu" and "Chinese Virus?"
— Wajahat "Please Stay Home If You Can" Ali (@WajahatAli) March 18, 2020
Source: Pixabay
But three years of silence and excuses have shown that the GOP is a spine-free zone. They said little and did even less when Trump incited violence at his rallies, insulted Gold Star parents, and paid off a porn star.
Dam Shame! Egotistical racist #Trump trying to distract from his failure with the #coronavirus by using outrageous racist name calling AGAIN #ChinaVirus #KungFlu America enough of these unfit people. Vote out #Trump #MoscowMitch #RandPaul spineless @GOP . #TrumpLiesPeopleDie
— Lonnie Lee (@LonnieJameslee) March 19, 2020
Source: Flickr/The White House
The GOP is Trump’s party, and that means party members pretend not to notice Trump’s racism, even when the race targeted is their own.
The gop is the party of trump now. Never trumpers are voting for Joe.
— Lysol Vol (@GTA_Redhead) March 19, 2020
