I’m so sick of Donald Trump’s attacks on Chinese Americans and Asian Americans, I could vomit
Here’s the thing about privilege. When you’ve never experienced being on the wrong side of it, you’re left with blind spots that can keep you from seeing the full picture, even when you see it clearly.
When Donald Trump suddenly decided this week that the coronavirus is now the “Chinese virus,” I knew exactly what he was doing. He’s afraid his base will abandon him now that America is facing economic collapse and a pandemic. So he’s trying to fire up his base by using the same tactic that he used to assemble his base to begin with: racism. As such, I immediately began calling Trump out for trying to scapegoat Chinese Americans.
But many of you have since pointed out that Trump’s racism is actually impacting all Asian Americans. You’re correct, of course. The bigotry that would drive someone to target or harass a Chinese American over the coronavirus is the same bigotry that would prompt someone not to care if the person they’re harassing is Chinese, or Korean, or Japanese. Bigots don’t tend to discriminate when it comes to how they discriminate.
As a few of you have pointed out, we saw this after 9/11. The bigots not only targeted Muslim Americans for being Muslims, they also targeted Sikh Americans for wearing turbans. At least America’s ignorant failure of a President back then had the decency to ask people not to scapegoat Muslim Americans. The current ignorant failure of a President is begging people to target Chinese Americans and Asian Americans. Donald Trump’s racism is so sickening, it makes me want to vomit – and I’m not even one of the people being targeted. I can’t imagine how it feels to be on the receiving end of it.
