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Meng said the rising racism and hate against Chinese is triggered and encouraged by inappropriate comments from President Trump.
U.S. House
Rep. Grace Meng, a Democrat, represents central and eastern Queens.This article originally appeared in World Journal.
Translated by Rong Xiaoqing from Chinese.
After her resolution calling for public officials to denounce anti-Asian hatred was passed by the House of Representatives, Congresswoman Grace Meng received many hostile phone messages attacking her with the words “Chinese virus” or “Kung flu virus.”
Meng posted these messages on Twitter, and said she was deeply disappointed by the xenophobic comments. Meng said many Chinese work on the front line fighting COVID 19, and noted that the Chinese community has donated a lot of PPE to local facilities. And they shouldn’t have been insulted this way.
In an interview on September 26, Meng told the World Journal that she’d received at least 10 voicemail messages since her resolution was passed on September 17. The racist messages Meng posted on Twitter including a woman who said Meng “looked like a Chinese virus” and called her a “fat slob,” and a man repeatedly used the words “Chinese virus” and “Kung flu virus.” And a caller threatened to call the Federal Bureau of Investigation and put her in jail.
Meng said she is very disappointed. She said many Chinese work as medical personnel, police officers and firefighters. They have been fighting against the virus to protect the health and safety of people in the community. Also, the Chinese community immediately mobilized when the virus hit the U.S. to donate a great amount of PPE to help fight the battle. And now they are called “Chinese virus.” “This is so unfair,” Meng said.
Meng said the rising racism and hate against Chinese is triggered and encouraged by inappropriate comments from President Trump and the officials in his cabinet, who set a bad model for the public. Meng said by exposing the messages, she hopes to send a warning to the racists against Asians, and to call for the federal law enforcement to work with their local colleagues to arrest the predators in anti-Asian hate crimes.
