Sen. Ted Cruz R-Texas, speaks to the media during the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

The intersectional crowd has been trying to maintain relevancy amid the coronavirus outbreak by engaging in one of their favorite activities: race-baiting. While the socialist faction has been using the pandemic to push for far-left policies, it appears the intersectional wing is using the virus to promote their “everyone we disagree with is a bigot,” trope.

The Texas Tribune recently published a piece intimating that Texas Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn are engaging in xenophobia and racism through their rhetoric. Like many others, the two lawmakers have committed the unforgivable sin of referencing China — the country where the virus originated — when discussing the pandemic.

The author takes issue with a recent comment that Cruz made on his podcast when he stated that Trump “wasn’t serving bat soup in the Wuhan province.” The senator was referring to a myth indicating that the virus came from a woman in the Wuhan province who ate bat soup. The piece also points out that John Cornyn stated that he believed “China is to blame” for the illness “because [of] the culture there.”

In the article, the author further criticizes Cornyn because of a video in which the lawmaker discussed some of the cultural practices of some Chinese citizens. In a phone call with reporters, he stated that it is “no coincidence” that ailments like COVID-19 come from China, asserting that the source could be “some of the cultural practices there.”

The article goes on to claim that the virus has caused “outright xenophobia and anti-Chinese sentiments among the nation’s leaders.” The author complains about how some have referred to the virus:

“While health experts are using the term COVID-19 to describe the disease caused by the coronavirus that was discovered late last year, a number of prominent conservatives have adopted different monikers: the ‘Chinese virus,’ ‘Wuhan virus’ and reportedly even ‘Kung-Flu.’”

The author then includes quotes from Asian Americans weighing in on the supposed racism being propagated by those who link the virus — which originated in China — to China. An Asian American studies expert insisted that this rhetoric constitutes “textbook racist discourse.”

Another source told The Texas Tribune that referencing China — the country in which the virus originated — when discussing the illness might have particularly dire consequences for Asians. “The renaming will have broader meanings and implications for Asians and Asian Americans in the country and around the globe,” said Yuan Shu, who heads the Asian Studies Program at Texas Tech University.

“The renaming will have broader meanings and implications for Asians and Asian Americans in the country and around the globe,” said Yuan Shu, the director of the Asian Studies Program at Texas Tech University. “This gesture will fuel a new wave of crimes and stigmatizes the entire racial group.”

Shu argued that the fact that the World Health Organization (WHO) named the virus COVID-19 indicates that renaming the pandemic is “highly politically charged and motivated.”

The article goes on to describe the opinions of other Asian Americans who believe using terms like “Chinese virus” will somehow have a detrimental impact on the Asian community. The author also notes the prejudice shown to Africans when the Ebola outbreak occurred in 2014. I’ll get to that later.

The article then castigates leaders for linking COVID-19 to China despite “an uptick in reports of harassment and assault of Asian Americans and the decimation of Chinese and Asian American businesses.”

In one case, the author details the experience of Lang Nguyen, an Asian Trump supporter and a resident of Irving, TX, who was scolded by a woman for coughing when trying to vote in the March elections. “Well, all you Asian people are spreading the coronavirus, and I don’t want to partake in that mess that y’all started,” she said.

The Texas Tribune seems to be engaging in the exact type of race-baiting that the far-left has been using to politicize the coronavirus further. The notion that we should pretend the pandemic did not originate in China is absurd, given the fact that others have also indicated that certain practices may have led to the outbreak.

Just today, The Guardian published a piece explaining that it is believed the virus came from a “wet market” in Wuhan province.

From The Guardian:

“The source of the coronavirus is believed to be a “wet market” in Wuhan, which sold both dead and live animals, including fish and birds.

Such markets pose a heightened risk of viruses jumping from animals to humans because hygiene standards are difficult to maintain if live animals are being kept and butchered on site. Typically, they are also densely packed.”

Naming China as the country in which the illness was spawned is not racist; it is accurate. Has this fact prompted a number of ignorant morons to harass and violently attack Asian Americans? It certainly has. But it is not the individuals who rightly identify China as the source of the virus that is to blame; instead, it is the abhorrent people perpetrating the harassment that should receive the blame.

But why is the far-left so concerned with convincing the American public that using terms like “Wuhan virus” is racist? They certainly did not have this same energy when it came to Africans being harassed over the Ebola virus; very few on the left spoke out against their treatment. Also, didn’t former President Barack Obama and members of his staff use the term “Ebola virus” without getting slammed by progressives?

Unfortunately, their motivation seems far too obvious: It’s a brazen ploy designed to once again label those with whom they disagree as bigots to score cheap political points. I’m sure many on the left are sincere in their concern for Asian Americans who are experiencing racism. But the progressive media machine seems to have one purpose: Paint conservatives as bigots regardless of whether or not they deserve it.

But were we expecting anything different?

Let me know what you think in the comments below!

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