China Virus – political & racist

3/21/20
 
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from CNN,
3/20/20:

You likely have seen this now-famous image by Washington Post photographer Jabin Botsford in which he captures President Donald Trump’s notes during Thursday’s daily coronavirus task force briefing.

Trump has, quite clearly, crossed out “corona” before “virus” and replaced it with the word “Chinese.” That edit is part of a concerted effort by the President and some in his administration to change the public understanding of this as a global pandemic that’s every nation’s responsibility to: China did this.

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from The New York Times,
3/19/20:

President Trump on Wednesday defended his increasingly frequent practice of calling the coronavirus the “Chinese Virus,” ignoring a growing chorus of criticism that it is racist and anti-Chinese.

“It’s not racist at all,” Mr. Trump said, explaining his rationale. “It comes from China, that’s why.”

But the term has angered Chinese officials and a wide range of critics, and China experts say labeling the virus that way will only ratchet up tensions between the two countries, while resulting in the kind of xenophobia that American leaders should discourage. Asian-Americans have reported incidents of racial slurs and physical abuse because of the erroneous perception that China is the cause of the virus.

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