A Lag ba'Omer invitation:
Please join me in a celebration of L'ag B'Omer, hopefully once again at least the beginning of the end of the current Wuhan virus pandemic...."Wuhan virus"? The virus has been thoroughly domesticated and Americanized by Our Current President Donald J. Trump.
More importantly, this is absolutely unacceptable when Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are at the receiving end of violence because of the "Chinese virus." I don't believe for a moment that the inviter hates Asian Americans or blames them for the virus. Maybe they were just owning us libs. Immature, but whatever. I do immature things too. Maybe it's a way of showing what political tribe they belong to. OK, I do that too. Nevertheless, if the intention isn't to provoke violence, this might be a good time to retire "Wuhan virus." As a pious child of Israel, the inviter may understand the power of words to inflict damage.
Is the invitation racist? Let's use an imperfect analogy. It's the fourteenth century. The Black Death is rampant. So are pogroms. Jews are accused of causing the pandemic by poisoning the wells. You, a non-Jew, are planning a get-together. You're not an anti-Semite, and neither you nor your invitees support violence or participate in it. Nevertheless, your invitation mentions "the Jewish pandemic" because doing so identifies you with some political tribe. I'm not asking about your intentions: is your invitation anti-Semitic?
