“You may say racist, silly stuff if you would like, however I’m asking you to please cease utilizing racist phrases like ‘Kung flu’ or ‘Wuhan virus
“You may say racist, silly stuff if you would like, however I’m asking you to please cease utilizing racist phrases like ‘Kung flu’ or ‘Wuhan virus’ or different ethnic identifiers in describing this virus,” Consultant Ted Lieu, Democrat of California, informed Consultant Chip Roy, Republican of Texas. “I’m not a virus. And while you say issues like that, it hurts the Asian-American neighborhood. No matter political factors you assume you’re scoring through the use of ethnic identifiers in describing this virus, you’re harming People who occur to be of Asian descent.”
Mr. Lieu’s feedback got here after Mr. Roy, one of many high Republicans on the judiciary panel, used his introductory remarks to concern a prolonged condemnation of the Chinese language authorities’s dealing with of the coronavirus and asserted that objections to what he categorized as nothing greater than hawkish messaging about China amounted to “policing” of free speech.
“There’s previous sayings in Texas about, you already know, ‘discover all of the rope in Texas and get a tall oak tree.’ You already know, we take justice very significantly, and we ought to try this — spherical up all of the unhealthy guys,” Mr. Roy mentioned in feedback that drew outrage on Twitter. “My concern about this listening to is it appears to wish to enterprise into the policing of rhetoric.”
Consultant Grace Meng, Democrat of New York, took exception to the comment.
“Your president, and your social gathering, and your colleagues can speak about points with every other nation that you really want, however you don’t must do it by placing a bull’s-eye on the again of Asian-People throughout this nation, on our grandparents, on our children,” she mentioned.
“This listening to was to handle the harm and ache of our neighborhood, to seek out options,” she added, “and we is not going to allow you to take our voice away from us.”