President Obama's sister, brother-in-law andone of his nieces.
Former President Barack Obama lost his legendary cool when talking about Donald Trump's racially insensitive reference to the coronavirus.
In an invitation-only fundraiser held last week for former Vice President Joe Biden's campaign for president, Obama, who usually chooses his words carefully, issued his strong response Trump calling Covid-19 as the "kung flu."
“I don’t want a country in which the president of the United States is actively trying to promote anti-Asian sentiment and thinks it’s funny. I don’t want that. That still shocks and pisses me off,” Obama said, according to the New York Times.
Obama's unusually blunt response may be personally offended by the offensive term because he is related to Asian Americans, who may be affected by the impacts the offensive remarks could cause.
His sister, Maya Kasandra Soetoro-Ng, is half Indonesian, the daughter of Obama's mother, Ann Dunham and Indonesian businessman Lolo Soetoro. Obama's sister is married to Konrad Ng, a Chinese Canadian.
Growing up mostly in Hawaii, where he spent the Christmas holidays when he was president, Obama's social circle there includes many Asian Americans.
President Barack Obama responded strongly against Donald Trump's use of "kung flu."
When it became clear that the coronavirus wasn't to be taken lightly back in February, Trump began referring to the virus as the "Chinese virus" and the "Wuhan virus."
After someone explained to him that those terms were racist in nature, offensive to Asian Americans and may have led to attacks against Asian Americans, Trump stopped using the terms.
Trump revived the use of "kung flu" two weekends ago in a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
A week ago at an event in Phoenix, Trump again used the term when prompted by the crowd, eliciting loud cheers from the partisan crowd.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Asian Americans have been the targets of racists who blame them for the spread of the virus. Experts and AAPI community advocates believe that use of those offensive terms by Trump and senior members of his administration is encouraging the attacks against Asian Americans.
Trump's insistence in shifting the blame of the coronavirus disastrous impact is almost certainly tied to his reelection campaign. He has been lagging badly in the most recent polls because of his poor handling of the pandemic. In order to energize his base of supporters, Trump is going back to an old playbook of racism that proved to be so effective in his 2016 upset victory over Hillary Clinton.
On top of the medical pandemic and the economic suffering, the nation is also undergoing a period of soul-searching in regards to the racism embedded in our country's institutions and in the hearts of too many Americans. Anything that could light a match to that tinderbox of emotions, such as the use of highly charged language from public officials, is irresponsible.
As long as his supporters react with loud cheers, the way they did in Tulsa and Phoenix, Trump will probably continue to use the racially insensitive "kung flu," "Chinese virus" and "Wuhan virus" when referring to Covid-19, much against the advice of the World Health Organization and his own Centers for Disease Control ... and much to the distress of AAPI community.
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