“Tying coronavirus to China and Chinese people isn’t just a racist dog whistle – it’s a whole racist orchestra"
Samantha Bee has slammed anti-Chinese racism linked to the Coronavirus on her show Full Frontal.
Bee, who rose to fame as a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, highlighted how right-wing media repeatedly blames China for the virus.
“Conservatives are following the president’s terrifying spread of misinformation,” Bee said before showing clips of news outlets linking the virus to China.
“The Chinese coronavirus really is Chinese,” one outlet said.
“China did this to the world,” another said. “The most encouraging thing is happening out
of China who started this whole thing.”
“The whole thing’s to show that their measures at containing it have actually worked,” one said. “Even though they started it and have yet to apologize.”
Fox News in particular is guilty of calling the virus ‘The Chinese Coronavirus’.
Bee responds to the camera, “China, we know it’s not your bad, but could you please send Brian Kilmeade an Edible Arrangement so he’ll shut the [BLEEP] up?” Kilmeade is a Fox News presenter.
She then continued to state that linking the virus to China is beyond racist. “Tying coronavirus to China and Chinese people isn’t just a racist dog whistle,” Bee said. “It’s a whole racist orchestra. It’s a mighty mighty racist bosstone.”
“Which brings me to this important point: the coronavirus is not an excuse to be racist!” She continued. “I know, I know. Racism is like America’s weighted blanket. When everything is stressful, nothing makes us feel more secure than treating other people like trash.”
Elsewhere, Bee highlighted how racism has affected Chinese businesses in America, with one businessman losing $1.5 million.
“Avoiding Chinese restaurants because you think every Chinese person has coronavirus?” Bee questioned. “That’s like not going to Ikea because you think all Swedish people want to burn you!”
Bee also slammed media outlets for using “photos of Asian faces in masks to illustrate stories about coronavirus regardless of who or what the story is about.”
The New York Post recently used an unrelated image of Asians in Queens to report on New York City’s first Coronavirus case, which occurred in Manhattan.
In related news, a 100-year-old Chinese man is the oldest patient to fully recover from Coronavirus.