My Compromise on the “Chinese Virus” Slur
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In these troubled times, we have found yet another way to divide us. In the midst of a deadly contagion, the left has been lecturing us that it is racist to refer to the virus that originated in Wuhan, China as either the Wuhan Virus or the Chinese Virus. Meanwhile, Donald and his cult have decided to go heavy on the mockery and insensitivity, since that’s the only thing they’re good at. Into this bitter divide, may I offer a reasoned compromise?
On the one hand, let’s agree that it’s really not nice to name diseases after people you don’t like. Okay? That’s the easy part.
Meanwhile, let’s agree that the human race has been doing the not-nice thing of naming diseases after people and geographical locations for a long, long time. After all, since the Middle Ages, what to call the disease syphilis has depended on who you are and whom you hate. The Dutch and the Portuguese knew it as the Spanish disease. The Spanish and Italians called it the French disease. The French called it the Italian disease. The Russians called it the Polish disease. And in my adopted home of Japan, they knew it as the Portuguese disease.
And sure, that’s not nice. So what do you say, next time, we agree not to tie the malady to a geographical location? Let’s stick to clinical names like CoViD-19 instead of Chinese Virus. And, who knows, we can even go back through the catalog and rethink the traditional names like German Measles, okay? Next time.
Because you know what doesn’t work, ever? Trying to change people’s behavior by criticizing the way they’ve operated for their entire lives. I’ll go even further: there are currently people criticizing others for indulging in the exact same behavior as the people doing the criticizing. At least, right up to the moment they decided that such behavior was something everyone should be ashamed of.
I would like to propose this test for anyone confident that entire ranges of human activity, however universal, can be described as hateful: simply ask yourself “How long have you felt that way?”
As you lose your mind over the term Chinese Virus, ask yourself if you have always believed it racist to refer to a virus by the place of its origin? Have you ever objected to the terms German Measles, Spanish Flu, or West Nile Virus? I mean ever? When you hear mentions of Ebola, do you immediately demand a stop to the casting of aspersions on the peace-loving people of Zaire? Or have you, like all the rest of us, never even thought about it before? I’m no mind reader, but I suspect that you never even knew you were supposed to feel this way until this exact moment in history.
We saw the same patterns during the “debate” over same-sex marriage. For thousands of years, marriage has had one form and one form only — the union of man and woman. Sometimes it was more than one woman. Sometimes it was young girls instead of women.
The rules have changed over the years regarding the petty details. But for as long as humans have practiced marriage, it has always required at least one male and at least one female. No other combination was even considered, neither by the Clintons of the world nor the Barack Obamas, not even the Joe Bidens. They were all on record as believing that marriage is between a man and a woman.
Then, within the last few decades — a blink of an eye in historical terms — a brand new idea emerged. This was that society could and should extend the institution of marriage to other couples as well. Society, generally, has adopted this radical notion with a rapidity almost unprecedented in time.
It required hundreds of years for the civilized world to abolish slavery, a custom at least as entrenched as marriage. Extending marriage to same-sex couples, on the other hand, took place almost overnight. Some people thought about it. Others prayed about it. In the end, it gained enough support that the change happened within the span of a single generation.
I sometimes imagine going back in time to when our parents were the same age we are now, and asking them “What do you think of the idea of a man marrying a man, or a woman marrying a woman?” They would have looked at us as if we were crazy. They’d ask “Don’t you understand what marriage means?”
Now imagine going back in time to when our grandparents were the same age we are now, and asking them the same question. They wouldn’t even know what we were talking about. They’d think we didn’t understand what men and women are. All of that uniformity of opinion, millennia of orthodoxy, has been overturned, within the lifetime of some family pets. The Clintons, Obamas, Bidens and more, all changed their minds. The Supreme Court agreed, and now same-sex marriage is the law of the land.
Unfortunately, that’s not enough for those marching under the “Woke” banner. While the arguments for same-sex marriage persuaded some voters (including me) and activist judges (but don’t get me started on that or we’ll be here all day), there were others who just aren’t on board. Not yet. It’s a big change. They’re going to need some more time.
But rather than give them the time they need, the Woke Brigade would rather label them as anti-gay for continuing to believe the same things that both the Clintons, Barack Obama, and even Joe Biden believed as recently as 2004. Next time the topic comes up, ask “How long have you believed that it is homophobic to define marriage as a state that exists between a man and a woman?” Because anyone older than thirty or so who claims “I’ve always felt that way” or “I was raised that way” is lying. We’re seeing the exact same tactic now in the fight over what to call the virus.
Again, this is me being conciliatory: if we are to have an agreement, it will not happen on the basis of recriminations and threats. By all means, let’s have a discussion. Now would you please not call me names?
I recognize that, even as you read this, there are people targeting those of Chinese descent with insults, and worse. That’s bad. It’s wrong, it shouldn’t happen in a civilized society, and it needs to stop. What I’d like all my friends on the left to recognize is that the people who do such horrid things aren’t doing it because Donald said the words “Chinese Virus”. No, it’s because the people who do such terrible things are jerks.
Much as it pains me to admit this, Donald and his minions are right about one thing. (Don’t be so shocked. It was bound to happen sooner or later.) For hundreds if not thousands of years, we have been naming things based on where they come from. And, this time, the virus comes from China.
We just happen to be born in this little slice of time in which some of us have developed empathy for the people from those other places. If you really want to change this custom, let’s talk about it. But please, don’t unilaterally decide how the rest of us are supposed to behave, make it retroactive to before any of this happened, and then paint me as a monster for not agreeing with you. After all, you didn’t always feel that way.
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