Due to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, people and organizations have directed anger at Russian people and entities. Some are head turning such as Russia being kicked out of the World Cup qualification. Some are silly such as the European Tree of the Year contest eliminating Russian trees from consideration. Some are sad culturally such as banning Russian ballets performances. In San Diego a restaurant selling food from the former Soviet Republics have been targeted by crank calls that have become more and more vicious even though the owner is ethnically Armenian.
Besides sanctions, which every government officials are calling for, there are also calls for banning anything or anyone Russian in this country. Some have called for kicking out every Russian student in this country. Of course, most Americans can't tell who is Russian. I, for example, thought that all the foreign dance pros in DWTS are Russians. In reality, a lot of them are Ukrainians. As the restaurant owner above noted, even Russians who escaped from the former USSR, can be targets today.
I understand the problems Russians face in this country. But I think it would be much worse for Asian Americans if China gets into a conflict with the U.S. Russia is a geopolitical enemy of the U.S. like China is. But China is also a economic competitor. There is also the matter of racial discrimination against Chinese throughout history. There are also a lot more Asian businesses in the U.S. than Russian businesses. Chinese restaurants will be boycotted and vandalized for sure. It is also much easier to tell Asians from Whites than Russians from other Whites. So we will certainly be attacked more. This will be true of all Asian Americans and not just Chinese Americans.
When I think of Russian dancers, Mikhail Baryshnikov comes to mind. Though I found out that he was actually born in Latvia, so Russia can't claim him as one of their own!
ReplyDeleteI hope in my lifetime that we don't go to war against China. Things are tough enough with being blamed for the virus. So far my friends, family and I have been lucky that there hasn't been any violence. I'd like to believe that there are calmer heads in this country but there have been so many violent acts against Asians, it's disturbing.
I came across two articles on different subjects and would like to know your thoughts!
Is there smoke with this Hunter Biden stuff? It seems the Trump children have done much worse stuff so I don't know how bad this could get. Just seems shady but no illegal unless Joe was somehow involved directly:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/new-hunter-biden-revelations-raise-counter-intelligence-questions-090046438.html
Hard to believe that there have been such big outbreaks in China. I don't seem to be able to find out what strain that is spreading there. I'm assuming it's one of the Omicron?
https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-business-guangzhou-beijing-e4c1df45c9906cd6818ddeee4d855b3e
By the way, I got my 2nd booster a couple weeks ago. Got Moderna again. The first booster kicked my butt and this 2nd one was no picnic. Similar side effects the next day...body aches and chills. Though this time it wasn't as bad but bad enough for me to lay in bed and shivering! Luckily, I was able to go to work both times and power through it. The effects didn't peak until later in the afternoon both times.
-LBOAYM
While Russia shouldn't be able to claim Baryshnikov, if he was still performing today he probably would be banned because people think of him as Russian. Never mind like you pointed out, he is not Russian and he defected from the USSR.
ReplyDeleteObvious it is hypocritical for the GOP to talk about Hunter Biden when the Trump family is much worse. But we should investigate all possible shady business deals because of national security. I doubt Joe is involved in anyway himself. He certainly has not gain a lot of wealth from his government positions. Remember Obama had to help him keep his home? Maybe he would protect his son but Joe certainly would not have done anything illegal or unethical to benefit himself.
Why do Western media keep reporting COVID disaster in China? I just check the data and China's cases are half of Hong Kong's and Hong Kong cases are decreasing. Most of the cases in Guangzhou are from Hong Kong probably. I think the total cases in China are less than those of LA in the past week. There has been no deaths in China recently from COVID while we still have hundreds daily. Meanwhile, South Korea and Germany have more than a million cases in the past week and nobody is reporting that. Both of those countries were successful early on. So maybe they have less immunity in the population and now that they open up they are being hit harder. Also I am sure they have more disinformation in these "free" countries. Can China keep up this zero policy? I don't know. But if they can hold on until we can get a vaccine that can last a whole year like the flu shot, then maybe we can get back to normal. I don't think getting boosters every 4 months is good as you may have experienced.