Trump has fueled a dangerous level of anger toward Asian Americans

I read Sarah Cho’s commentary, “Life as an Asian American teenager during coronavirus” (March 30), with interest. My sympathies to her. The bigoted know no better, and they are motivated by fear. I am, indeed, concerned about hate crimes and physical harm to Asians during this crisis. President Donald Trump fuels the fire of hate, inadvertently or deliberately, mostly for politics and his reelection bid. The downstream recipients of that hate, like Ms. Cho, are the innocent victims of psychological or physical trauma or both.

President Trump has been consistent and persistent in his racist barrages against various groups of people, singling them out for nicknames, re-tweeting the messages of his favorite fringe groups of haters, giving nods of approval to them by his tacit or overt acceptance of their bigotry, all for his political survival or worse because he’s motivated by his own racism.

Not too long ago, a Trump fan said to me, “This is a Chinese virus isn’t it?” I replied, “No, it is a virus!” Then I asked him, “Why do you call it a Chinese virus?” He answered, “It came from China, didn’t it?” Then I asked him since most mass shootings happen in America, would he call them an American public health crisis and epidemic, an American virus of sorts?

The comparison was not exact, of course. My point was about the potential harm of appending pointedly racist and stereotypical monikers to public health crises and I thought he would see that it is not good to go down that route. He replied, “That’s not the same as this Chinese virus!” I rest my case.

Usha Nellore, Bel Air