A meeting between Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted and state residents of Asian descent did not take place Friday — one day after Husted mentioned the meeting during a press briefing and two weeks after tweeting what’s largely viewed as a racist term regarding the coronavirus.
Husted reportedly canceled a private April 9 meeting intended to soothe tensions between himself and Asian Americans who live in Upper Arlington, a suburb near Columbus. According to WSYX-TV, the group does not know why Husted suddenly canceled the meeting.
Husted and the group had scheduled the meeting after Husted tweeted “So it appears it was the Wuhan Virus after all?” on March 26 in response to baseless claims by Robert Redfield, former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who had suggested that the coronavirus originated in a lab in China. Scientists repeatedly have said Husted’s suggested scenario is unlikely, and “Wuhan virus” largely is seen as a racist term.
Husted had mentioned the then-upcoming meeting during a press briefing with Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on April 8.
The lieutenant governor did not directly say during the briefing if he had planned to apologize for his remarks during the meeting, instead insisting without evidence, “We know that in Wuhan, there is a lab that circumstantial evidence is building that could have been the location of the origin of the virus.”
Nearly 70 people had co-written an open letter to Husted on March 31 about how his words affect the daily lives of Asians living in Ohio and in the United States, as reported by WCMH-TV in Columbus. In it, the group noted the “stunning increase in violence towards Asians and Asian Americans nationally in the last year” and explained that Asian children in the suburb have been targets for bullying at astonishing levels.
The letter writers fear that more abuse is coming, in part due to rhetoric from Husted and others.
Lt. Governor Husted, your choice of words has only raised the anxiety and fear that Asians and Asian Americans in Upper Arlington are currently experiencing. We want to believe that you did not have as your goal to make your neighbors feel even more frightened and even more vulnerable. So, we are sharing our fear with you. Many of us fear the verbal abuse that our children and family members experience will soon escalate to physical violence against them, and we are incapable of protecting them from this. As Lt. Governor, you are uniquely positioned to represent and protect the interests and safety of all Ohioans. As a resident of Upper Arlington, and our Lt. Governor, you are uniquely situated and have the power to take action to protect the families of our community. To protect all of our families.
Crimes against Asians have risen during the pandemic, broadly attributed to racist rhetoric surrounding the coronavirus. The first person known to have COVID-19 lived in Wuhan, China in December 2019, and scientists believe the virus originated from bats in the region.
People with vocal platforms have used that information to malign people of Asian descent and present false, racist narratives that some say have encouraged racist actions. Former U.S. President Donald Trump used such language both during and after his tenure, frequently referring to the coronavirus as “the China virus,” “the Chinese virus” and the “Kung Flu.”
Stop Asian American Pacific Islander Hate (AAPI) — an organization formed in “response to the alarming escalation in xenophobia and bigotry resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic” — reported more than 3,795 acts of violence against Asian Americans in the United States from March 2020 to February 2021. Forty of those reports were from the state of Ohio, where more than 345,000 AAPI people reside.
Since receiving backlash for his comment, Husted, who had supported Trump, has said that his tweet was not directed against Asian Americans or people in China generally. Rather, it was to highlight a “probable coverup” of the coronavirus outbreak by the Chinese government, he said.
During the April 8 briefing, he repeated those claims, saying “The purpose of my tweet was to raise awareness about what happened in China as it relates to the coronavirus.”
This article appears in Apr 1-30, 2021.