Racism targets Asian food, business during COVID-19 pandemic

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As the coronavirus spread throughout the U.S., so has misinformation, racist memes and hateful rhetoric targeting Asian Americans. Asian restaurants have been stigmatized and vandalized.

Benny Yun, owner of Yang Chow restaurant, left, delivers a take-out order in Los Angeles, Thursday, Dec. 17, 2020. Bigotry toward Asian Americans and Asian food has spread steadily alongside the coronavirus in the United States. Yun said even though his businesses have survived the pandemic, they get prank calls almost daily asking if they have dog or cat on the menu or impersonating a thick Asian accent.

The information quickly got distorted in the U.S., spurring racist memes on social media that portrayed Chinese people as bat eaters responsible for spreading the virus, and reviving century-old tropes about Asian food being dirty. Fueling the fire, President Donald Trump repeatedly referred to COVID-19 as “the China virus.

Conversations about the stigmatization of Asian food reached a crescendo this month when Philli Armitage-Mattin, a contestant on “MasterChef: The Professionals,” used the phrase “Dirty Food Refined” and the hashtag #prettydirtyfood in her Instagram bio, which described her as an Asian food specialist.

“The way I mean food to be ‘dirty’ is indulgent street food; food that comforts you as in, ‘going out for a dirty burger,’” she wrote.“It was a very flippant, ignorant, tone-deaf way of talking about Asian food,” he said. University of Miami English professor Anita Mannur said the current crisis reminds her of racist cartoons from the late 1800s that advertised for rat poison by picturing a Chinese man about to eat one of the rodents.

Benny Yun, owner of the Yang Chow restaurant in Los Angeles’ Chinatown district and two other locations in Southern California, said even though his businesses have survived the pandemic, they get prank calls almost daily asking if they have dog or cat on the menu or impersonating a thick Asian accent.

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I usually give small or no tips in restaurants to asian wait staff, to encourage them to go back home.

They should remember that even if 70 million people hate them 88 million love them and that things are changing for the better

First off Covid virus has been around for years There is a lot of evidence that covid 19 was in the US prior to the outbreak in china aside from that you can't blame a people for what a microscopic virus does This is all on Trump's idiocy in deflecting blame from himself

Americans maybe racist but when it comes to food they could care less if its from the black, to the white, the red And the brown, the purple and yellow.They will eat it.

That’s me lol! yangchow has the best Chinese food in DTLA! As a half Chinese person...racism against Asians is the racism we don’t talk about. Thank you for shining the light on this!

Racist people are always racist, they just use any excuses to do bad things

Why Asians and not bats? Or pangolins? Or meat-eaters? I’d like to see the correlation with anti-maskers and anti-Evolutionists.

That’s all on trump

This article is self-defeating in claiming as racist any & all concerns regarding Asian practices of varieties of animal species meat consumption & 'traditional presentation . . . roast duck hanging in windows.' If Texas Roadhouse is window hanging cooked B-Q ribs, count me out.

Given, US Asians & Asian restaurants wrongly stigmatized by animal dietary practices in Asian countries. But disingenuous is minimizing transmitting of animal pathogens to humans from wildlife wet markets: It only takes one infected contagious human to begin an epidemic: Wujan

Imagine blaming trumpvirus on Asian Americans

Not in my hometown. They were the first ones opened. They done curbside services and online ordering. Have eaten more Chinese food this year than last. We let them know how appreciate we are.

This is really a bullshit article and not even close to being true. More of what the AP is good at. Keeping race wars alive and dumping fuel on the fire.

I’ve probably eaten Chinese more this year than ever. Go back to sleep!

Nope, I still eat Asian restaurant take out three times a week. Good God some people in this country are fucking dumb... 🤦🏻‍♀️

Managed to pack racism and 'rona into one post. All you need is a pic of fat donnie in the headline and the trifecta will be achieved.

USA - This is Sickening behaviour Shame shame shame Namaste Alhamdulillah Gitche_Mantou Hallelujah_Shalom

I see a ton of memes each day, and I kid you not, I have not seen a SINGLE 'racist' meme on this subject. Maybe because I mainly follow independents and conservatives? I guess it's possible Democrats are circulating that sort of hate, so it never crosses my feed.

Well we all know it wasn’t ericswalwell.

That's because America is a racist, backwards, and pre-third world country filled with round people with fatty liver disease who drive pick up trucks and want to kill brown people with thier 2nd amendment protected toys.

Disgusting

Then stop s I reading your lies and hate

So according the article, the majority of the racist rhetoric is coming from 2 states. CA and NY. I mean in my county in VA, Asian restaurants are booming

Well the truth is this flu strain DID come from China! An it’s not the fault of ANY American. I have enjoyed several Chinese dinners. This is a small group of people

This is disgusting and the present government has made this hate okay. January 20 cannot come fast enough!

FakeNews LiberalismIsTheRealPandemic TheTruth

How is this still a thing? It was ridiculous back in March. It’s still ridiculous now.

Source? fake ass media

Damn those trumpers who make up the vast majority of the popolous in the areas where 60% of the reports originate from... 🙄🤪

Let's 'Make America Great Again'. Are you sure, DJT?

Mostly fake news. Maybe some old people have these thoughts, but mostly just what racist liberals think those that voted for Trump think.

What do you expect also if it isnt right ? ChinaLiedPeopleDie

This is the price you pay for being the first to raise the alarm. It's even more ironic now that we've found earlier cases that predate Wuhan. It also doesn't help that China was already public enemy 1 of the US before this all started.

False dumb tweet, is a divisive fake news outlet, shameful

Here come all the 'non-racist' people with their ignorant generalizations.

Seems as if most of the hate comes from Dem run cities (NY, LA) yet the rest of the country has to hear how righteous those places are

Racism is a black snow that falls everywhere but, more on some then others that doesn’t seem to melt away.

Asians have participated in antiBlack Racism for years...all racism is horrid and unacceptable so I hope these actions open the Asian communities to being as they want others to treat them..

What a successful nation !

They were heavy on the anti blackness for decades, so ima mind my business. This is their fight.

Back in March the Tea Garden in Concord had to hang a sign telling people they weren’t Chinese. It was sad and bizarre to see it.

The flip side of the so-called American dream - which also allows people to dream about destroying others.

No they haven’t. Stop

The racists feel that if the President can be openly racist without repercussions, they can, too.

'Wet Markets' aren't for butchering live chickens. They sell live mammals, who are stack in cages over each other, with feces and urine drenching each other. AP should be ashamed of spreading misinfo to protect their Chinese handlers. Pitiful.

this is terrible news

Racism=Divide & Rule Politicians survive on dividing and creating hatred among people

Fake story

So why did the Asian vote for Trump increase from 18% to 31%? Maybe your lies don't work?

You -Eat junk -Watch news -Watch porn -Live in debt -Don't exercise -Play video games -Smoke&Drink regularly -Have a single source income -Spend time with negative people And then you wonder why your life isn't changing? Follow me to change your life

More lies from the left.

That mistake won't be corrected until 12:00p.m. on 1/20/2021. Until then, it will be condoned through silence from America's soon to be ousted leader.

And the AP plays right into China’s hands...speaking as an Asian American. Funny how they weren’t worried about disparaging our Russian-American friends the last four years either.

The CCP is evil. The Chinese/American who owns a restaurant busting his/her ass for 18 hours a day is not. This s--- needs to end.

We have enough problems w/o this special brand of stupid racism.

Your just making this stuff up.

The University of Pennsylvania's Dr. Harald Schmidt told the NY Times older people are 'whiter.' Thus, 'Instead of giving them the vaccine, we can start to level the playing field a bit.' That means intentionally causing people's deaths — because they're the wrong color.

Woe to you old earth and sea

Bullshit I have eaten more Asian take out in the last 8 months than the previous 5 years.

Happened in Australia in some parts communities too

Now do the restaurants BLM and Antifa have vandalized

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