CommentsTRUMP’S VIRUS-What is racism? Ultimately, it is fear. A personal fear of a threat a person feels powerless to control.
That fear manifests by striking out at others, usually less powerful, to demonstrate you have the ability to control something in your life.
By repeatedly calling it the Chinese Virus, the not-my-president specifically makes targets of people with Asian features, goading his followers to violence against their fellow Americans rather than taking steps to help fight the pandemic.
When I was mugged a number of years ago, it wasn’t by a big black guy and it wasn’t in the ghetto. My attacker was a slight French Canadian teenager in downtown Vancouver who was so high on PCP it took three other white guys, all over 200 pounds, to pull him off me and hold him down till the cops came.
Does that mean all French Canadian or all teenagers need to be locked up?
No, it means people high on PCP are more likely to act against societal norms.
Racism can also be blaming a black teenager in the ghetto for an inchoate fear of violence in your own neighborhood. Statistically that teen may be more likely to attack someone, anyone, than a white teen in West LA but does it really help alleviate crime in Calabasas?
Someone who is desperate for money is more likely to shoplift. Does that mean our government should imprison all poor Americans to prevent petty larceny?
So, yes, there would be a statistically higher percentage of ethnically Chinese people among those who traveled from Wuhan or returned from a trip there at the time when the virus jumped the Pacific.
That does not make all Asians responsible for the pandemic, despite Trump’s repeated attempts to deflect accusations from his own obfuscations and inaction by pointing his short fat fingers at China.
And this makes it easier to understand why some Americans, fearful for their own lives, may blame those of Asian heritage for spreading COVID-19 (which should be more appropriately called the Trump Virus). But can’t we all rise above this?
Surely, we as a people have learned better behavior than what drove the mobs to lynch blameless blacks in the Deep South or who burned innocent women as witches in Salem.
At issue – what is relevant – is, was a person in Wuhan or Milan recently, NOT if they have Asian features or an Italian name.
In the same way, is a person recently arrived from Yemen necessarily been radicalized by ISIS? Or do they just have an Arabic-sounding name?
Over the past decade, the Supreme Court has struck down certain sections of the Voting Rights Act claiming that there was no further need for these protections. I beg to differ. A thousand polling places in predominantly African American counties have been closed in recent years. In the past few elections too many people of color have been disenfranchised.
So don’t try and tell me racism no longer exists in the United States.
Under this president racism is flourishing and it has put people of color at greater risk of contracting Trump Virus infection. Most recently, the lifting of the mandate for the EPA to enforce pollution controls has happened at a time when air pollution and resultant respiratory ailments are putting Hispanic, Black and Asian Americans at significantly greater risk to be infected, hospitalized and die.
Trump’s ascendency is not an aberration; it reflects the fears of many Americans enmeshed in hopelessness and looking for a way to channel their anger. For poor whites, just as during the Reconstruction, there is a visible minority to blame. And Trump has given them the OK to vent their fear. To change that, we need to give these people new hope, and improve the quality of life for everyone, not just the 1%.
Yes. This is still a racist country. Now what are we going to do about it?
(Liz Amsden is a member of the Budget Advocates, an elected, all volunteer, independent advisory body charged with making constructive recommendations to the Mayor and the City Council regarding the Budget, and to City Departments on ways to improve their operations, and with obtaining input, updating and educating all Angelenos on the City’s fiscal management.) Illustration: The Daily Beast. Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
