`China virus' label is racist

To the Editor:

I highly praise the courage of Bill Burnes (letter 2-20-21), a lifelong Republican who announced that he is leaving his political party. His reasons: “promotion of the big lie about the election being stolen, cowardice of most Republican senators to not convict Trump in face of the shocking capital riots, for putting their political party ahead of our country, and for Republican state organizations censuring their members for voting to convict.”

Let me add one more observation of the damage done by the former president and his party. Being an Asian-american, as well as a Pacific Islander, I perceive Trump as being the main cause of today's racial hate crimes against our people by continually calling the pandemic the “China virus” while in office.

This repetitive reference stuck and remains in the minds of his followers. Like his speech before the insurrection, this incited others to cruelly and physically bully Asian-americans from New York to San Francisco/oakland. The worst part is that their victims were elderly, small in stature and as such, easy to injure. In view of the injustice done to these innocent American citizens, I don't think anyone will argue the fact that Trump's intentional verbal assaults were disrespectful, divisive and racist. It's interesting that several of the victims were not even of Chinese descent but instead from other Asian family backgrounds.

Further, the variant strains of the coronavirus that have been introduced are from Britain, Australia and South Africa, but there has been no backlash against those countries. I wonder why?

Douglas K. Lau

Sonora