On Monday, President Donald Trump finally struck the appropriate tone and, standing alongside respected public health officials such as Deborah Birx and Anthony Fauci, offered sound advice and real leadership on what Americans can and should be doing to combat spread of the coronavirus.
Sadly, that same day and the next he returned to his Twitter account to fire off two ill-advised tweets once again calling coronavirus the “Chinese Virus.” This is exactly the kind of divisive, stigma-causing language the president’s own Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned against in regard to the coronavirus and “persons of Asian descent.”
As many public health experts throughout the country have taken pains to explain, viruses don’t have nationalities, and they don’t discriminate when it comes to who can spread disease or become infected. Labeling coronavirus as a “Chinese” virus only contributes to the confusion and divisiveness in an uncertain time.
Texas alone is home to some 1.5 million people of Asian descent, more than 5% of the state’s population. These Texans, many of whom arrived generations ago, are no more likely to test positive for the coronavirus or spread COVID-19 than any other Texan. That is to say unless, like Sen. Ted Cruz, they have come in contact with an individual who already tested positive.
We wouldn’t call the president’s language “racist,” as some have. But we would agree with evangelical leader Eugene Cho, who tweeted this week that “Calling it the ‘Chinese virus’ only instigates blame, racism and hatred against Asians — here and abroad. We need leadership that speaks clearly against racism; leadership that brings the nation and world together. “
What would that leadership look like?
Less than a week after 9/11, President George W. Bush stood side by side with Muslim-American leaders and spoke these words: “This is a great country. It’s a great country because we share the same values of respect and dignity and human worth. And it is my honor to be meeting with leaders who feel just the same way I do. They’re outraged, they’re sad. They love America just as much as I do.”
Standing side-by-side with Asian-American leaders, Trump could deliver a similar message in a similar time of national crisis and uncertainty.
— The Dallas Morning News