White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Monday defended the president’s recent use of the term “Kung Flu” in reference to COVID-19 at a Saturday rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
She claimed his rhetoric was an indictment on China rather than Asian Americans. Experts, however, warn that besides being offensive to both groups, the excuse doesn't hold up because Asians and Asian Americans are often viewed as a monolith because of implicit bias, the history of the racial group in the U.S. and the current political climate.
Asian American advocacy groups responded to Trump’s use of the racist phrase, which he used after joking that the novel coronavirus “has more names than any disease in history.”
“I can name ‘kung flu,’” Trump told the crowd. “I can name 19 different versions of names.”
CBS News White House correspondent Weijia Jiang, who said the term was previously used against her by an unnamed White House official brought it up to McEnany Monday in a press briefing.
Jiang had asked her about the language’s impact on Asian Americans who are worried the rhetoric could exacerbate the hate attacks that have been targeting the community since the pandemic’s start. The press secretary claimed that Trump encouraged Americans to “totally protect our Asian community” before further defending his use of the racist phrase.
“It’s not a discussion about Asian Americans, who the president values and prizes as citizens of this great country,” McEnany said. “It is an indictment of China for letting the virus get here.”
But Andy Kang, Executive Director of civil rights nonprofit Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Chicago told NBC News that given the political and racial environment of the U.S., Trump’s words could have harmful consequences.
“We’re currently in the middle of a global pandemic that has caused a tremendous amount of suffering, both in economic terms and, more importantly, lives lost. On top of that, it’s a Presidential election year,” he said. “With such an emotionally-charged political atmosphere, it’s irresponsible and reckless for our political leaders and candidates for our nation’s highest office to engage in rhetoric that incites xenophobic scapegoating and violence.”
Kang explained that the history of Asian Americans in the U.S. is dotted with evidence showing that such rhetoric has laid the groundwork for violence and shameful policies.
More than three decades ago, Vincent Chin, who was Chinese American, was fatally beat in Detroit by two white autoworkers, who mistook him for a Japanese man and blamed him for the loss of jobs in the U.S. during the Japanese autoboom of the 80’s. Chin died just days before what was supposed to be his wedding. And in recent years, several Chinese American scholars and academics, including professor Xiaoxing Xi and scientist Sherry Chen, have been wrongfully accused of espionage by the U.S. government. Both endured alarming accusations before their cases were abruptly dropped. Moreover, an NPR report revealed that the FBI has visited at least 10 universities since 2018 in an effort to urge the institutions to develop protocols for monitoring students and visiting scholars from Chinese state-affiliated research institutions.
Public health officials, including the World Health Organization, have warned that using terms that tie certain groups or industries to diseases are both inaccurate and could be potentially incendiary. In 2015, The WHO itself revised its naming guidelines to avoid the unintended consequences of stigmatizing communities or industries.
But Russell Jeung, Ph.D., Chair and Professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University, explained that we need not look to history to find evidence of such misdirected anger. Online hate crime reporting forum Stop AAPI Hate, which recently released data on reports from March 19, 2020 to May 13, 2020, revealed it had received 1,843 incident reports. In more than a quarter of incidents, perpetrators invoked the terms “China” or “Chinese” in their acts of discrimination. In 17.5 percent of cases, the assailants parroted the term “Chinese virus.” Jeung, who was involved in analyzing the cases, noted that half the incidents of racist abuse were directed at people who weren’t even ethnically Chinese.
Research shows that Trump’s harmful rhetoric toward other groups have lead to negative consequences. A study published in February showed that his inflammatory remarks toward the Latinx community lead to what researchers dubbed the “emboldening effect.” Individuals are more likely to express their prejudice and to act on it after hearing his remarks. While statements condemning such rhetoric did not completely negate the emboldening effect, they did in fact soften it.
McEnany not only claimed Trump’s gaffe was an indictment on China, but also shifted blame to media outlets, including CNN and The Washington Post, who had used language identifying the illness by origin or location like “China virus” in January. However since then, the Asian American Journalists Association released guidelines in February to implore outlets to use responsible reporting practices.
Manjusha Kulkarni, Executive Director of Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council, the group behind the reporting tool, said that the rhetoric is an example of the president pinning blame elsewhere, rather than taking responsibility for his own handling of the virus.
A New York Times report from April pointed out that Trump had received warnings from advisers, experts and intelligence agencies as early as January, calling for aggressive action to deal with the virus. However, Trump continued to downplay the virus and in February had accused Democrats of “politicizing” it.It wasn’t until March that he took actions that had long been presented to him including shutting down certain cities.
“This is a danger not only for Asian Americans, but all Americans,” Kulkarni said.