Last night I went to NAACP's home page. It has a special section on the coronavirus (COVID-19). In its latest post, the association came out in support of Asian Americans. Apparently some tried and true Americans, who obviously excelled at biology in high school, are blaming Asian Americans for the pandemic.
(Who says American educational system is suffering? With all the information available online, on TV, and in print, one with even two semesters of high-school biology must conclude that the Chinese are spreading the disease. Even our teaching methods of reasoning and logic support that conclusion. Where did the virus start? In China. Whose fault? The Chinese. Just ask Donald "I'm Smart" Trump. [Ever notice that people who are very smart never talk about how smart they are. Maybe someone should tell Donny.])
Surely, some find inspiration from the nation's Bigot in Chief, Donald Trump, who constantly refers to COVID-19 as the Chinese virus. In fact, a photographer captured an image of a briefing page with coronavirus crossed out and Chinese virus written in with a black Sharpie, Donnie's favorite writing tool. His play to some American's more xenophobic natures is dramatically affecting many Americans.
"As the coronavirus upends American life, Chinese-Americans face a double threat," wrote Sabrina Tavernise and Richard A. Oppel, Jr., in today's New York Times. "Not only are they grappling like everyone else with how to avoid the virus itself, they are also contending with growing racism in the form of verbal and physical attacks. Other Asians-Americans — with families from Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines, Myanmar and other places — are facing threats, too, lumped together with Chinese-Americans by a bigotry that does not know the difference."
The story begins as a Chinese-American woman is walking to the gym. A man--not angry, not anything unusual according to the woman--made her feel uncomfortable. As she stops at a sign, he spits on her.
His reaction was stupid. He's an a**hole. He should be jailed for ignoring social distancing mandates. More importantly, he violates the very principles of American citizenship by surrounding to himself in the most undemocratic and base of instincts--fear of what he refuses to understand. The information is available from a variety of trust-worthy sources. He needed only to read, watch a video. He chooses to retreat centuries into a world of fear and distrust. Why?
He's a chicken-s**t. He is afraid. He needs to find a villian. Even if the Chinese government had masterminded this pandemic, which it didn't, the woman walking to the gym had nothing to do with it.
He is not as unique as many European Americans prefer to believe.
They surround us. In quiet. And they're all chicken-s**ts. They fear the world or changes in the world. They want the world caste into their version of an American theme park--whether everyone is of European descent or goose-stepping down Fifth Avenue, New York.
There are those brazen enough to brandish their bigotry. Grudgingly, you must admit that they stand by their convictions. More important, they make themselves easy to identify as a**holes.
There also are those who surround their bigotry in secrecy, like the man who spit on the woman. He is the most dangerous of chicken-s**ts. These cowards find the courage of their convictions only when they cluster en masse, much like COVID-19, making both dangerous.
Fortunately, there will come a time when a vaccine will halt COVID-19's strength. Unfortunately, America has yet to create a vaccine to halt bigotry.
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