A thread to debate whether it is ok to call the coronavirus Wuhan/China virus.

On the day after Trump was praised by CNN for having the proper "tone" in regards to the coronavirus, he and Fox News quadruples down on calling it the Wuhan/China virus. But is it racist?

Does China need to take responsibility for lacking food safety and blocking free speech regarding coronavirus?

It seems obvious to me that this usage conveys a kind of nationalist sentiment tinged with xenophobia. Maybe from most people it's more of an attempt to deflect responsibility away from the current administration, and less a consciously motivated attempt to foster xenophobia, but those sentiments are reflected in the usage nonetheless. And I think people should take seriously the potential that language use in situations like this can escalate into scarier forms of dehumanization with worse consequences. Which is not to say I think we're weeks away from interning Chinese-Americans or anything. But it's good to be aware of how these processes work, especially historically.

It is also true, at the same time, that China should look to make changes internally that might prevent future outbreaks like this. These aren't mutually exclusive conclusions.

It's also true in my opinion that it's probably not entirely fair to assume some straightforward counterfactual where none of this would have happened except for the failures of the Chinese government, Trump's failures, or whomever else. Lots of mistakes have been made. Some of them were avoidable. I'm not sure it's realistically possible to absolutely guarantee that viruses like this literally never happen though. It seems like another mistake is trying too hard to figure out who to scapegoat instead of just trying to figure out what to do now. Which is not quite the same as saying that we shouldn't try to learn from mistakes and improve by understanding who was responsible for which mistakes.

Half the country is gonna be unemployed and homeless for months and the media and Dems are talking about woke BS rather than focusing on getting aid to families.

Well, in reference to the far left sentiment making the rounds that there is no real difference between Trump and Biden.

I am fairly extremely confident Biden wouldn't be calling this the Chinese virus right now (at least not intentionally). So if you really have a problem with this (which seems reasonable), maybe this is one of many reasons to go out and vote against Trump in November.

I think it's obvious Trump is deflecting blame from his own incompetence and he's more than happy to instigate the worst in people just so they will stop looking at his faults.

I'm 100% certain GHWBush, Clinton, GWBush, Obama, Romney, McCain, and every other serious presidential candidate within our life time would have stopped calling the virus "Chinese" once people point out it could incite racist sentiments.

But I never once doubted Trump is more than happy to keep calling the virus "Chinese."

So 30 days ago CNN & MSNBC had no issue referring to it as the Wuhan Virus now its time to be political correct.

I am sure all the people that die from this and lose their jobs really do not care what you call it.

I personally refer to it as Covid 19 which it is. I would think our leaders would do the same .

Half the country is gonna be unemployed and homeless for months and Trump and the right wing media are talking about the name of the virus rather than focusing on getting aid to families.

Yeah I agree with everything you said. I also find it impossible for the general public to have that type of conversation when the media sensationalizes Trump's obvious ploy to divide us as a way to gain clicks. The entire conversation just gets dumbed down and emotionally charged.

I remember Obama was praised for shifting the rhetoric on calling Muslim people Islamic Extremists like they did during the Bush years. It's not that it isn't important, it's that there are more important things to be focusing on at this time, like the current global crisis that is sure to become much more severe. Massive amounts of people are dying in Iran because of US enacted sanctions so they aren't able to obtain supplies they need to combat the pandemic. Trump has also authorized a new bombing campaign in the middle east performing airstrikes against Iranian-linked militia throughout Iraq. I really don't know whether to call this Trump's Katrina, or his 9/11, I guess we'll have to wait and see. But I'm sure, rather than spending money on bombs, we could be spending money helping the people of our country get through this crisis, as well as drop the sanctions against Iran in this global pandemic.

Listen, I'm Korean-American, so I understand the sentiment of not wanting to call it the Wuhan/China virus, but right now, I really don't care since there are much more important things to be focusing on. Not that it doesn't matter, or that we shouldn't fight it, just that we shouldn't fall into his trap. Easier said than done of course. How do you mobilize against a narcissistic sociopath who can masterfully divide the country by attacking our vulnerabilities in a predatory nature?

It just seems like a lose/lose. The more we talk about it, the more it shifts the narrative and blame away from himself, for both past, current and future mistakes/atrocities, which is exactly what he wants so he will just keep doing it. If we ignore it, we will normalize his racist rhetoric and marginalize an entire race of people. Discussing it the way you mentioned is one path forward but I 'd imagine it would be extremely difficult for the general public to have such a nuanced conversation in our current political landscape. I just think we have our priorities mixed up and we need to focus more on what is currently happening and how to deal with the ever-growing global crisis we are facing, rather than some manufactured hoopla that is relatively meaningless in the grand scheme of things where millions of lives are at stake. His objective is to control the narrative and the media, thereby controlling us, so the obvious counter is to not allow him to do that. The media should cover it, but not sensationalize it 24/7, both things easier said than done.

In a vacuum, I am actually fine with calling viruses by where they came from.

But we're not in a vacuum. WHO suggested calling it Covid-19 to try to stave off racism and prejudices. Trump is, as is clear if you watch him speak and defend his use of the word, calling the virus Chinese to deflect criticism from his own incompetence. Besides, he seemed okay with calling the virus anything but Chinese when he wanted to defend Xi.

He's not unaware of the consequences of calling the virus "Chinese." In fact, it's why he's calling it Chinese. He wants to divide us and be too busy to look at his faults.

During the HU debate against Bernie biden and Bernie didn't call the coronavirus the Chinese virus but they did call it ebola and sars a total of 4 times.

its racist. the intended effect is to create a designated other, before he focused on simly the Chinese he was calling it the "foreign" virus, as if a virus has a nationality.

the target audience, ppl like joe, will eat it up and run with it.

Who gives a ****! Everyone knows why he's calling it that. His supporters will lap it up because that's what they do. The woke crowd will feign outrage. All of which distracts from the real ****ing crisis at hand.

There's no need to call it by an ethnic name when you can call it covid19 or coronavirus. "Spanish flu" was also a misnomer invented by jingoistic Americans. No good comes from that.

Unlike Bernie who can’t do 2 things at once (help during a global pandemic and drop out of a race he has 0% chance to win), the Dems can criticize trump and provide aid at the same time without affecting their efficacy in either. It’s what you do when you’re the adult in the room

Agreed. It is as racist as saying Jackie Robinson was one of the first great "African-American" athletes. It is as racist as a zoo keeper describing an elephant as an "African Elephant". It is as racist as the aquarium putting a sign outside of the tank holding a Axolotl calling it the "Mexican walking fish". It is as racist as calling the shot an "Irish car bomb".

For generations people have used all kinds of things to describe new things and where they originate from has always been one of those ways. So move on you "easily offended American".

It has been 45 days since the Iowa dem caucus and they still don't know who won. Before you go bragging about what dems can do, you need to acknowledge counting isn't one of those things. As a 2nd example biden loves pointing out how bernie has been pitching M4A for what seems like 40 years and he still can't even throw out a ballpark number of how much it will cost or how much more he will tax people.

All of these things are false.

I am shocked that when pointed to the fact that this has been going on for generations and it is only now being called racist that this is your response.

I see a lot of similarities between the Wuhan/China virus label and the OK symbol.

Oh and well named, thank you for your well thought out response. I kind of hijacked it to bring up my own points.

Words have different implications in different contexts. The word "Chinese" or other ethnic descriptors are not racist in a vacuum, but in certain contexts they can be.

For example:

Some racist: "I sure hope this lawyer doesn't Jew me."
bahbahmickey: "Nope, definitely not racist, because I can say 'Benjamin Netanyahu is a Jew' without being racist."

Please tell me there is someone on left who can acknowledge the irony....the term "racism" is used by many here in the same way Trump is purportedly using the term Chinese.

The to the main point... it's likely majority of people are not paying attention to what name is being used, or the context, other than it describing the virus. People who are, already have flawed thinking.

Just ignore it. Calling something racist has turned into a meme.

This, of course, doesn't make a lick of sense, not even syntactically.

The virus has a name. It doesn't also need a description that intentionally stigmatizes people.

Maybe, as wn suggests, we can elevate the conversation.

For those of you that aren't familiar with Rising, Saagar is a conservative and Krystal is a progressive.



Saagar and Krystal make some valid points. And I think we should try to understand each side of the argument rather than misrepresent and brush each other off, otherwise no one wins. Really I think everyone wants whats best for the country moving forward because we all realize the gravity of the situation.

Trump has to be Trump. Nothing's changed.