Yes, It Is Racist

Chinese Food: Not Racist

Italian Sausage: Not Racist

Swiss Cheese: Not Racist

Brazilian Wax: Not Racist

Belgian Waffle: Not Racist

Greek Salad: Not Racist

Cuban Sandwich: Not Racist

Irish Coffee: Not Racist

Chinese Virus RACIST

No one is flinging Belgian Waffles or Swiss Cheese at anyone. But people are spitting at, yelling at and being violent toward Asian Americans.  The difference between Belgian Waffles, Swiss Cheese and “Chinese Virus” is fear.  No one is afraid of a Belgian Waffle or an Italian Sausage. People are afraid of Covid-19. And fear makes people do funky things, like blame others and marginalize those they think are to blame. In the midst of a pandemic, fear is the least helpful emotion. It lies at the base of violence toward Asian Americans.

The occupant’s penchant for continuing to call it the “Chinese Virus” isn’t helping. Reading from notes Thursday at a press conference, the word Corona was crossed out and “Chinese” was inserted. When asked about it he said, “It is not racist at all, no.” The occupant is wrong. It is racist and unhelpful. This rhetoric is combined with his larger anti-immigrant stance where, in the last few months he has used the words predator, invasion, alien, killer, criminal and animal more than 500 times. The sum of it all contributes to xenophobia and division among the American people at a time when we need to be united against a common threat–the virus, not a particular people.

According to NBC news, the response from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs encouraged the United States to play a “constructive role” to safeguard international public health. Further, a spokesperson from the Ministry said, “We hope the United States will respect objective facts, respect international public opinion, do its own thing, stop constantly shifting its attitude and stop slandering other countries.”

Historically, the United States has blamed other countries for global pandemics. For example, the influenza epidemic of 1918 is commonly referred to as the Spanish Flu.  Scientists, however, are almost all in agreement that this flu actually started in the Midwest of the United States. Yet, the name persists. It reflects that blaming energy that wants to separate us from any responsibility for what is happening in the world.

There is, at our most base nature, a tendency to think of ourselves and our own first. We often gather more than what we need at the expense of others. We disregard directives from those whose perspective is far larger than our own puny desires. Witness the number of students on spring break in Florida who ignored directives to leave the beaches and continued their vacation festivities. They will come home to infect their parents, grandparents, and who knows who else. This will contribute to the inevitable second wave of Covid 19.

History shows that pandemics come in three waves. We are in the first wave right now and the current directives are aimed at minimizing the impact of the second wave. History shows that the second wave is often more serious than the first. As directives are loosened (usually by people who are bored with doing what they have been told) people return to their usual activities and the infection rates often rise precipitously.

The tendency to blame and shame does not summon the better angels of our nature. It comes from fear and leads to destructive thinking. This is a time to offer our best selves to the world in faithfulness and humility.  It is a time to recognize our global humanity and do what we can to stop the racist naming of Covid 19.  Take a risk, correct someone else. Explain why it is racist and not like Belgian Waffles. Perhaps you will give someone something to think about.

Walter Brueggeman, an Old Testament Scholar, writes that we have the opportunity and indeed the responsibility to “…shape our future and present in compassion and not hostility, not in abandonment, but in solidarity…not in estrangement but in wellbeing.” (A Way Other Than Our Own, Devotions for Lent)

We share a worldwide covenant with people of every nation and language and faith. We are one human community.  If this pandemic teaches us anything, it will be how connected we truly are. A virus that started in one specific place has become a global phenomenon in a very short amount of time.  We belong to one another. Let us belong with love and mercy.

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