For sheer cynicism, this takes the cake: Democrats are calling House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy “racist” for using the term “Chinese coronavirus.”
No joke: “Bigoted statements” that “blame Asians and the Asian American community for #coronavirus make us all less safe,” tweeted Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) called it “racist” to use the term “Chinese.” Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) huffs that she’s “disgusted.”
What exactly did McCarthy tweet? Just that: “Everything you need to know about the Chinese coronavirus can be found on one, regularly updated website: coronavirus.gov.” Oh, the horrors, huh?
Never mind that COVID-19 really did start in China and that attaching that adjective in no way “blames” Chinese Americans or even China itself for it (though Beijing’s early censorship of warnings about the virus surely worsened the situation for everyone).
Never mind that left-leaning, uber politically correct outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN have used that exact phrase, with nary a complaint. Even the Democratic-run House Committee on Foreign Relations itself referred to the bug as “the Wuhan Coronavirus.” (Wuhan, remember, is in . . . China.)
And how about all the other diseases whose names refer to places: the Spanish Flu, West Nile Virus, Hong Kong Flu, German Measles, Asian Flu, Rocky Mountain Fever . . . Are they all racist, too? Heck, the Spanish Flu didn’t even originate in Spain.
Of course Asian Americans shouldn’t be targets of discrimination on the idea that they’re more likely to be carrying the virus.
Notably, Beijing has launched a global propaganda campaign pushing the myths that “Chinese coronavirus” is racist and that the bug was actually a US creation.
Rather than playing into China’s hands, Democrats in Congress need to focus on getting the nation’s business done.