“That Conversation about Race” category archive

Trumpled in the grocery store:

The man coughed on an employee, who backed away from the encounter.

A second employee intervened, and that’s when the man said that racial minorities are to blame for the coronavirus pandemic. Both employees were minorities, one black and the other of Asian descent.

The story goes on to report that the man was arrested, detained for a short time, then released “as police prepare a case for consideration of charges,” whatever that means.

Viral frolics.

At the San Francisco Chronicle, Bonnie Tsui tells tales of Trumpling in these viral times. A snippet:

In an airport lounge at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport last week, a young woman was asked by a group of three men to move farther away due to their coronavirus anxiety. She texted her father about the exchange, who posted her note on Twitter: “‘I told them, sure, I’d move, but I’ve never been to China and that their racial profiling is what’s hurting this country.’”

Via Job’s Anger.

The Des Moines Register’s brilliant Rekha Basu tags the Maytag Foundation (which is no longer in any way related to the appliance manufacturer) for its financial support of an anti-immigrant spin factory.

I have noted from time to time in these electrons the increase of incidents of cruelty and bigotry directed at persons (who look as if they might be) of Asian descent since stories of the coronavirus entered the news. As if a virus gave a damn . . . .

Valentina Stoycheva, writing at Psychology Today Blogs, examines how persons excuse themselves from culpability for their cruelty during such a health scare. An excerpt (emphasis added):

It follows from cognitive dissonance that if I treat a person of a different race poorly but want to tell myself I am a good person, this poses a problem. However, if I commit an absolutely unthinkable and demeaning act of hostility towards an Asian person during the Coronal outbreak and tell myself I am keeping myself and my family healthy, I can keep my racist biases deep in the unconscious and consciously still consider myself a good and caring human being. But a health crisis is more than an excuse, it is also a catalyst for prejudices due to the panic it creates.

At The Philadelphia Inquirer, television newsperson Nydia Han, who is of Asian descent, makes a request:

My dad does not have coronavirus. Neither do I. So please don’t treat us like we do.

Follow the link for the rest, and feel shame that she had to say it.