I think the reason white folks don’t want to seriously interrogate the history of anti-Asian discrimination and violence in America is that it forces us to challenge our accepted narratives about our role in the world throughout much of our history, from our treatment of Chinese immigrants in San Francisco to the interment of Japanese Americans in WWII through the Korean and Vietnam Wars, both of which serve merely as backdrops for white male bildungsroman narratives, both fictional and political. APOCALYPSE NOW, THE DEER HUNTER, John McCain, John Kerry, etc.
The “China Virus” narrative and resulting hate crime wave is only the latest example of gullible whites falling for racist propaganda that scapegoats individuals who, at least to Cletus and Billy Bob, seem “different.” Meanwhile, the real culprits, the greedy, feckless politicians who ignored doctors and scientists and deliberately lied about the number of casualties (looking at you, Cuomo) seem to have mostly gotten away unscathed.
The most depressing part of all this is how unsurprising and inevitable it all seems. Especially now that I’m old enough to see this cycle play out more than once.
You have scores of trigger happy racist cops out there and for each racist cop there are dozens (if not hundreds) of Ed Kempers: mediocre middle aged white men who worship authority, hate women, and are possessed by homicidal fantasies.
