Racism targets Asian food, business during COVID-19 pandemic(Quite making excuses. All restaurants are down)

PBS ^ | Dec 20, 2020 | Editorial

[Vendome]

As the coronavirus spread throughout the U.S., bigotry toward Asian Americans was not far behind, fueled by the news that COVID-19 first appeared in China.

“That old-school rhetoric that we eat bats, dogs and rats — that racism is still alive and well,” said Clarence Kwan, creator of the anti-racist cooking zine “Chinese Protest Recipes.” The speed with which such false stereotypes resurfaced during the pandemic is “a reflection of how little progress we’ve made,” Kwan said.

n addition, Asian American small businesses have been among the hardest hit by the economic downturn during the pandemic. While there was a 22% decline in all small business-owner activity nationwide from February to April, Asian American business-owner activity dropped by 26%, according to a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

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.

[Vendome]

There is a 4% delta in the decline of business from Asian American businesses to what? Regular businesses?

That is not a significant number except that because of the lock downs it shouldn't have happened in the first place.

Stop looking for a boogeyman to blame for the downturn in business.

It is the fault of your hack politicians who are doing this.

Put the blame squarely where it belongs or you may find a lot people won't return to your business because you cast a wide net over huge swaths of people who really liked your restaurants before the Plandemic but, now they suddenly got in touch with their inner Klu Klux Klan?

Gimme a break and bitch at the politicians who can end this today.

[Altura Ct.]

Bite me and all this ‘racism’ BS.

[BenLurkin]

“As the coronavirus spread throughout the U.S., bigotry toward Asian Americans was not far behind, fueled by the news that COVID-19 first appeared in China”

https://webmail.lerctr.org/~transit/healy/bull.wav

[Governor Dinwiddie]

article: "That old-school rhetoric that we eat bats, dogs and rats"

Well they eat all that stuff and even more disgusting things. It is not a myth. The late Anthony Bourdain made a career out of eating that crap.

[dangus]

“While there was a 22% decline in all small business-owner activity nationwide from February to April, Asian American business-owner activity dropped by 26%, according to a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research.”

As if Asians were evenly distributed throughout America.

[PGR88]

We all know the race-card is better even than Discover Card - it has no fees, no annual charges, and is zero interest rate.

Some Asians especially want to quickly use it before the rest of the Diversity Crew declares them White.

[Bob434]

white castle likely seeing less chinese people than they once did- Are the chinese racially discriminating against white castle?

[CatOwner]

As if Asians were evenly distributed throughout America.

Exactly. A high percentage are in California, and that state has had some of the most restrictive restaurant lockdown measures in the country.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

http://www.humoar.com/chinese-restaurant-we-not-see-your-cat-sign/

[Seruzawa]

There are a lot more asians in leftwing lockdown States like Kalifornia than in the heartland. Of course their businesses are going to suffer more.

All that aside, PBS is just making stuff up. I know very few people who blame the Chinese for Covid. Apparently the propaganda machine that blames Trump has been pretty successful.

[alternatives?]

Asians lives matter.

[Steve_Seattle]

"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."

Sounds like the typical behavior of leftist trolls.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

“fueled by the news that COVID-19 first appeared in China.”

Not news to anyone who’s been paying attenuation. President Trump has been on this since day one. I just started haring China virus in the MSM right after the election. They couldn’t bring themselves to agree with Trump until then.

[11th_VA]

I’ve been buying more Chinese food since this began ... just not eating the bat soup ...

[Steve_Seattle]

"While there was a 22% decline in all small business-owner activity nationwide from February to April, Asian American business-owner activity dropped by 26%, according to a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research."

They assume race is the main factor, but it could be that the difference is due to the possibility that Asian-owned businesses are slightly over-represented in the types of businesses that have been deemed "non-essential" and forced to shut down: restaurants, beauty salons, nail salons, etc.

Another factor might be that - simply as a matter of plausible inference - Chinese-Americans would presumably be more likely to have travelled to China or had visitors from China, and might therefore have had a higher rate of exposure to the disease. This might not in fact be true, but it is not "racist" for people to think that it might be true, and hence to avoid going to Chinese-owned businesses.

At any rate, the alleged 4% difference is the kind of difference that is usually said to be "within the margin of error." It is not a dramatic difference.

[DoodleBob]

I don't doubt the underpinnng of the story. Most of the restaurant devastation was likely in cities, and I bet it was urban, woke white affluent types who abandoned Chinese food takeout places for Whole Foods deliveries on "healthy lifestyle" grounds vs their subconscious racist tendencies.

As for avoiding the soup, you're missing out on the good stuff.

[Steve_Seattle]

"As if Asians were evenly distributed throughout America."

Excellent point; they tend to be concentrated in the major metropolitan areas - especially on the two coasts - that were most likely to have been shut down.

[big bad easter bunny]

I demand all Asian restaurants in America are allowed to fully open up now!

[SJackson]

A 26% decline vs 22% for non Asian restaurants from Feb to Apr. Someone tell Clarence Kwan it's December. Who did the "survey"?

I wouldn't eat an any restaurant with this mission statement.

Chinese Protest Recipes, a new zine by Clarence Kwan, announces three goals in bold typeface on its fourth page:

1. SUPPORT BLACK LIVES MATTER

2. RAISE AWARENESS ABOUT RACISM AND WHITE SUPREMACY

3. RESIST THROUGH CHINESE FOOD

A particularly concentrated period of anti-Black violence rippled across the United States earlier this year, a confirmation of the dark prophecy indicated by the nation’s disregard for the disproportionally Black and Brown victims of this pandemic. We shared, marched, rioted, and donated; we read, cried, taught, wrote, and pored over the news. But many of us, people of color in diasporas worldwide, are still grappling with the devastation. Chinese Protest Recipes comes at a time when Asian communities in the West are suffering under racist aggression newly emboldened by Covid-19, and the deliberate misinformation circulated about its origins. “I realized I had a lot to say,” Kwan tells me during our correspondence. Having volunteered on the ground in Toronto’s Chinatown, cooking and distributing free meals to community residents in need, the Chinese-Canadian cook took to his Instagram (@thegodofcookery) to begin sharing messages of solidarity between Black and Chinese communities after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. “Whether you are conscious about it or not, you are making a political act and actively upholding white supremacy three times a day when you choose what to eat,” he wrote on Instagram. Calling for a decolonized approach to cuisine, Kwan urges his audience to look beyond what has been validated by Eurocentric accolades or institutions – and toward an exchange of cultural knowledge produced and perfected with patience, practice, and love.

[SJackson]