4 ms·

It was labelled as racist and sold through the news. Many people felt that xenophobia aftertaste. The message was designed to make you feel that way.

by ipaddr 5y ago

woodruffw 5y ago
> It was labelled as racist and sold through the news. Many people felt that xenophobia aftertaste. You don't remember when the sitting president called it "kung flu"[1]? I don't need a newspaper to see the xenophobia in that. [1]: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-53173436 https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-53173436
- MathCodeLove 5y ago
  What is the xenophobia in that? Jokingly calling a virus that originated in China after a martial art that originated in China. That's xenophobic... how?
  - woodruffw 5y ago
    It’s xenophobic for the same reason that any ethnic or national joke can be: it takes an incidental fact (we believe that COVID originated in China) and mixes it into a stereotyped ethnic or national identity (kung fu is from China and Americans think of kung fu when they think of China). Put another way: it takes our laziest view of a ethnicity and uses it to make light of a disease that we think came from there, one that everybody is unhappy about. It doesn’t take much to see the latent xenophobia in that.
    - MathCodeLove 5y ago
    - ejb999 5y ago
      where were all the offended people when we had the 'spanish flu' or the 'german measles'.
      - barbazoo 5y ago
        While I'm sure they probably were people that got offended by it I like to think that we've grown to be more sensitive to these kinds of issues in the past 100 years to not tolerate present day xenophobia based on past xenophobia. TIL that there were "German measels", in Germany we just called them "measels".
        morelisp 5y ago
        "German measles" is Röteln, more properly in English rubella (vs. measles / Masern, also often confused with rubella due to some languages using "rubeola" for measles). The name also has nothing to do with Germany; it's a mistranslation of "germanus", cognate to "germane", i.e. a disease "like measles". In other words, it's not German and it's not measles. Hopefully a lesson in using this naming pattern for diseases...
      - woodruffw 5y ago
        What is the point of this comment? We can and should do better than our progenitors. Also, it's worth actually reading up on why we called it the Spanish Flu: our allies in WWI originally called it the "American Flu," but changed it to avoid offending us. Edit: it's also worth nothing that (1) "Kung Flu" is significantly different in content from "Spanish Flu," and (2) it doesn't have to be the case for anyone to be offended for xenophobia to be wrong.
  - Bud 5y ago
    "Jokingly"? The current issue aside, racists and xenophobes basically always attempt to evade responsibility by claiming they were "only joking". Such claims should be tossed in the trash bin where they belong. First, it's not a joke, and it's not funny. Second, they're lying...they didn't intend it as a "joke" and don't really even understand what a "joke" actually is, for the most part. And third, it's not relevant whether it was a joke or not.
    - MathCodeLove 5y ago
- barbazoo 5y ago
  I don't live in the US so that didn't really carry any weight for us.
Talanes 5y ago
I don't watch mainstream news, but I got the exact same impression from people. Usually from the tinge of disgust in their voice every time they say the word "China."
philliphaydon 5y ago
The west got played by China state run media. They were still calling it the Wuhan virus while actively calling anyone else who did so racist. They called anyone who closed their borders racist while blocking domestic travel but still flying truckloads if people out of Wuhan on international flights. The west sucked this up and any mention of china in any capacity got you called racist.
- ejb999 5y ago
  not a surprise - most of the supposed 'outrage' found on social media - and repeated by the mainstream media - is completely manufactured by foreign governments.

It was labelled as racist and sold through the news. Many people felt that xenophobia aftertaste. The message was designed to make you feel that way.

by ipaddr 5y ago

It was labelled as racist and sold through the news. Many people felt that xenophobia aftertaste. The message was designed to make you feel that way.

woodruffw 5y ago

> It was labelled as racist and sold through the news. Many people felt that xenophobia aftertaste. You don't remember when the sitting president called it "kung flu"[1]? I don't need a newspaper to see the xenophobia in that. [1]: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-53173436 https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-53173436

MathCodeLove 5y ago
What is the xenophobia in that? Jokingly calling a virus that originated in China after a martial art that originated in China. That's xenophobic... how?
- woodruffw 5y ago
  It’s xenophobic for the same reason that any ethnic or national joke can be: it takes an incidental fact (we believe that COVID originated in China) and mixes it into a stereotyped ethnic or national identity (kung fu is from China and Americans think of kung fu when they think of China). Put another way: it takes our laziest view of a ethnicity and uses it to make light of a disease that we think came from there, one that everybody is unhappy about. It doesn’t take much to see the latent xenophobia in that.
  - MathCodeLove 5y ago
  - ejb999 5y ago
    where were all the offended people when we had the 'spanish flu' or the 'german measles'.
    - barbazoo 5y ago
      While I'm sure they probably were people that got offended by it I like to think that we've grown to be more sensitive to these kinds of issues in the past 100 years to not tolerate present day xenophobia based on past xenophobia. TIL that there were "German measels", in Germany we just called them "measels".
      - morelisp 5y ago
        "German measles" is Röteln, more properly in English rubella (vs. measles / Masern, also often confused with rubella due to some languages using "rubeola" for measles). The name also has nothing to do with Germany; it's a mistranslation of "germanus", cognate to "germane", i.e. a disease "like measles". In other words, it's not German and it's not measles. Hopefully a lesson in using this naming pattern for diseases...
    - woodruffw 5y ago
      What is the point of this comment? We can and should do better than our progenitors. Also, it's worth actually reading up on why we called it the Spanish Flu: our allies in WWI originally called it the "American Flu," but changed it to avoid offending us. Edit: it's also worth nothing that (1) "Kung Flu" is significantly different in content from "Spanish Flu," and (2) it doesn't have to be the case for anyone to be offended for xenophobia to be wrong.
- Bud 5y ago
  "Jokingly"? The current issue aside, racists and xenophobes basically always attempt to evade responsibility by claiming they were "only joking". Such claims should be tossed in the trash bin where they belong. First, it's not a joke, and it's not funny. Second, they're lying...they didn't intend it as a "joke" and don't really even understand what a "joke" actually is, for the most part. And third, it's not relevant whether it was a joke or not.
  - MathCodeLove 5y ago
barbazoo 5y ago
I don't live in the US so that didn't really carry any weight for us.

Talanes 5y ago

I don't watch mainstream news, but I got the exact same impression from people. Usually from the tinge of disgust in their voice every time they say the word "China."

philliphaydon 5y ago

The west got played by China state run media. They were still calling it the Wuhan virus while actively calling anyone else who did so racist. They called anyone who closed their borders racist while blocking domestic travel but still flying truckloads if people out of Wuhan on international flights. The west sucked this up and any mention of china in any capacity got you called racist.

ejb999 5y ago
not a surprise - most of the supposed 'outrage' found on social media - and repeated by the mainstream media - is completely manufactured by foreign governments.