March 24, 2020
It was a date that would live in infamy. President Donald Trump held a press conference last week and in that conference, he called the coronavirus the “Chinese virus.” The backlash ensued. The Asian-American community was furious. How dare he call it ‘Chinese virus’!? The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) warned calling Covid-19 the “Chinese virus,” because it could unintentionally lead to racial profiling. Chris Cuomo condescendingly went off on Republicans for labelling Covid-19 the “Wuhan virus” or “Chinese virus.” However, he knew CNN and his colleague, Don Lemon, was calling it the Chinese coronavirus months before President Trump did so.
Was President Trump racist for calling it the Chinese virus? Maybe. That way of thinking is up to the individual. If you do think it’s racist, then by those very same standards, isn’t CNN, CBS, and MSNBC racist for labelling it the Chinese virus from the very get-go? Hopefully, you watched the 2-minute clip of proof for this article. Don Lemon labelled it very clearly at 1:06 min in the clip. “The Chinese coronavirus” and his other colleagues took it a step further and called it the “Chinese coronavirus from China.”
Let us not forget the Zika virus was named after a forest in Uganda, Africa where the virus originated from. The Ebola virus was named after the Ebola River in Congo, Africa where the virus originated from. None of those names is considered racist. They are simply named after the places of origin. President Trump is a narcissistic manchild. However, to be fair, if you’re angry he called the coronavirus what he called it, start at the source. CNN. They made very clear who started the virus, where it came from, even coined the name/term that people think is so racist right now.
Feature Image via Anchorage Daily News