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1. (Thread) @CPMustangNews dropped a huge article yesterday at a Bio professor. This thread is about one aspect of the article - the explicit harmful, racist rhetoric used by a faculty member in science. #stopaapihate 
https://mustangnews.net/power-imbalance-in-covid-19-enforcement/
https://mustangnews.net/power-imbalance-in-covid-19-enforcement/
(More specifically this thread will set aside the anti-science, anti-mask views by a science professor, using his position of power while making truly alarming claims to be informing covid-19 policies at an institution of higher education.)
2. Let's set the stage, and ask what's wrong with jokes like "Asians are good at math."
Niral Shah gets at this skillfully in this article https://www.chicagoreporter.com/asians-are-good-at-math-why-dressing-up-racism-as-a-compliment-just-doesnt-add-up/
Niral Shah gets at this skillfully in this article https://www.chicagoreporter.com/asians-are-good-at-math-why-dressing-up-racism-as-a-compliment-just-doesnt-add-up/
3. Quote: "This might seem funny at first, but the underlying message is clear: Asian people aren’t seen as human beings; they are calculating machines. Asians are literally objectified, seen as capable of doing things at a speed... In other words, they are dehumanized."
4. US history rhymes... Two quotes pre-Japanese internment.
Quote: "A viper is nonetheless a viper wherever the egg is hatched. A leopard’s spots are the same and its disposition is the same wherever it is whelped."
Quote: "A viper is nonetheless a viper wherever the egg is hatched. A leopard’s spots are the same and its disposition is the same wherever it is whelped."
5. Quote: "So a Japanese-American, born of Japanese parents, nurtured upon Japanese traditions, living in a transplanted Japanese atmosphere and thoroughly inoculated with Japanese thoughts, Japanese ideas and Japanese ideals, notwithstanding his nominal brand of accidental...
6. "...citizenship, almost inevitably and with the rarest of exceptions grows up to be a Japanese, not an American, in his thoughts, in his ideas and in his ideals, and himself is a potential and menacing,...
7. ... if not an actual, danger to our country unless properly supervised, controlled and, as it were, hamstrung."
These are from newspapers in the weeks before EO 9066 and moving people to concentration camps. https://historycontext.wordpress.com/2017/02/20/a-viper-is-nonetheless-a-viper-wherever-the-egg-is-hatched/
These are from newspapers in the weeks before EO 9066 and moving people to concentration camps. https://historycontext.wordpress.com/2017/02/20/a-viper-is-nonetheless-a-viper-wherever-the-egg-is-hatched/
8. Now let's turn our attention to the Mustang News article https://mustangnews.net/power-imbalance-in-covid-19-enforcement/
9. Quote: “Why is it ‘racist’ to call [COVID-19] the ‘Wuhan virus,’ yet we have no problem with all those other names? The politicization is a dangerous game,” Fidopiastis said in an interview email. “I could care less what we call the virus.”
10. Let's unpack this. First, if you didn't care what to call the virus, then call it SARS-CoV-2, the name used in the scientific community.
11. Clearly, there's a social context he is tapping into. "China virus," "kung flu," "Wuhan virus" are all part of a set of dog whistles to stoke fear and hatred of AAPI.
12. "Politicization is a dangerous game" is a move to play the victim, while simultaneously committing the act of politicizing. He could use SARS-CoV-2, but chooses to use racist language. Calling the bluff.
13. All of this is a way to signal to students and others that it's okay to dehumanize AAPI people, using a position of power as a tenured scientist and educator.
14. The AAPI community has been warning that such language is damaging and harmful. More than 3800 incidents of discrimination and violence have been reported and some of this stoked by exact language used by this faculty person. https://stopaapihate.org
15. Once you start the process of dehumanizing people, then it creates an environment where some individuals can take things to horrific extremes. See the Atlanta shootings. https://www.vox.com/22335666/asian-spa-shooting-atlanta
16. This is why it is vital for faculty, especially tenured faculty, to speak up against this kind of dehumanizing language in all its forms. In the article, he claims he is not alone with these views. Hence, silence lets these views grow and create more space for AAPI hate.
17. See John Oliver and his response in the aftermath of the Atlanta shootings. The video is worth the extra click. /end https://www.thedailybeast.com/john-oliver-exposes-meghan-mccains-stop-asian-hate-hypocrisy
