“Coronavirus pandemic has been a gift for the grievance studies industry”
“As the virus COVID-19 spreads, numerous Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) have reported experiencing microaggressions, racial profiling, hate incidents and in some cases, hate violence.”
We’ve already seen countless higher ed stories about people crying racism over the term “Chinese virus.”
The College Fix reports:
The new ‘urgency’: teaching about coronavirus-fueled racism
The coronavirus pandemic has been a gift for the grievance studies industry.
Just as student journalists rushed to make use of what they learned in their “studies” courses about racism — and then connect it to COVID-19 — now academics are “confronting the rise in anti-Asian and anti-Asian American racism” associated with the malady.
According to Inside Higher Ed, scholars have put President Trump and “other prominent figures” in their crosshairs due to their continued use of the phrase “Chinese virus.” Alleged “experts” assert this term “fuels xenophobia.”
In a supposed “outreach to Asian American communities,” the Journal of Asian American Studies “put out an urgent call for submissions” for an upcoming special edition dedicated to the coronavirus and racism.
San Francisco State University Asian American Studies Chair Russell Jeung even set up an online reporting form where people can document bias and hate incidents related to COVID-19. Descriptions are limited to “2-3 sentences.”
The form notes “As the virus COVID-19 spreads, numerous Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) have reported experiencing microaggressions, racial profiling, hate incidents and in some cases, hate violence.” It says the collection of submissions “will be used for assistance, advocacy and education.”
The problem with the form is that there doesn’t appear to be a means by which to verify reported incidents. The system seems akin to that of the Southern Poverty Law Center which (allegedly) documented a rise in hate/bias incidents following Donald Trump’s election.
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Comments
There definitely is a rise in anti-Asian racism, and that’s terrible. I’ve seen it myself. But it’s not caused by using terms like “Chinese virus”, it’s caused by the well-known fact that the virus came from China, as so many viruses do. Not using the term isn’t going to make people forget that.
Not just that the virus came from China but that the Chinese government has lied about it at every turn since December.
Strictly speaking, it’s not caused by the phrase or by the fact that the virus came from China.
It’s caused by people who are assholes.
The phrase and/or the geographic origin of the virus merely provides the occasion for their assholery.
Yeah, but there’s a noticeable increase in this particular form of assholery. Changing the name isn’t going to affect that.
I didn’t mean to suggest that it would. I just think that, as conservatives, we shouldn’t let people evade responsibility for their actions by blaming the circumstances.
If the phrase were the cause of anti-Asian bigotry, that bigotry would manifest itself in everyone who hears it. But it doesn’t and therefore we must conclude that the true cause lies elsewhere. I think it lies in the character and choices of the bigots themselves.
Mind you, I also hold people in the grievance industry responsible for what is often their own overblown, oversensitive, and opportunistic reaction to this sort of thing.
And of course I hold the Chinese government responsible for what appears to have been an attempt to cover up this outbreak.
“And of course I hold the Chinese government responsible for what appears to have been an attempt to cover up this outbreak.”
How different do you suppose the government of China is from the culture of its people? Do you think the massive and long-standing theft of intellectual property from the West is a function only of the Party apparatchiks? Is the belief that it is somehow immoral to steal from others and foreigners solely a Western ethic or do you believe that value exists in China, at the level of dealing with the property of foreigners?
Is the impetus to lie and hide impacts of the virus as it broke out in Wuhan simply the result of Communist Party control? Was that doc who tried to speak out merely an outlier or are there thousands, million like him? Did many people in China support secrecy and non-disclosure so as not to be embarrassed before the world?
Put another way, if the behaviors we in the West find abhorrent existed in China, would China be the looming pariah that it seems to be? Would its neighbors in Asia/SE Asia really love the Chinese or do many societies and cultures in that part of the world (think Vietnam and others in SE Asia) distrust the Chinese culture?
Where were all these grievance studies people when Asians were suing Harvard for its documented discrimination against Asian students in admissions? As I remember, the grievance industry opposed giving Asian students equal opportunity in admissions.
Perhaps in their bubble university environment, but I think most of the US has placed the grievance industry on the back burner. Who’s really thinking about that right now?
Let’s hope America shoves it out completely.
I had Lyme disease several years back, I still hate people from CT.
I still can’t get over the thousands of American Muslims that were killed and tortured during the riots caused by 9-11.