Photo courtesy of WisEye.org
Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Patience Roggensack
On May 5, Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Patience Roggensack sought to get to the bottom of the spread of COVID-19 in Brown County. During oral arguments on the legal validity of the state’s “Safer at Home” order, Roggensack noted that it was “[d]ue to the meatpacking…that’s where the Brown County got the flare. It wasn’t just the regular folks in Brown County.”
Conservative pundits rushed to dismiss Roggensack’s comments as innocuous, but she was drawing from a history that stretches back well over a century, one that posits that illnesses are spread by “abnormal” outsiders whose culture only furthers the reach of disease. To Roggensack, the problem was not with “normal” (white) residents of Brown County; the issue could be traced back to the Latino immigrants who worked in the meatpacking facilities surrounding Green Bay.
As early as the Immigration Act of 1891, white Americans used public policy to connect foreigners to the potential spread of disease. This legislation banned those afflicted with any “loathsome or contagious disease” from entering the United States. Steamship companies bringing such individuals to America were therefore ordered to inspect and disinfect all would-be immigrants. At the same time, immigrants from such disparate locations as Asia, Eastern Europe and South America were described as “grimy,” “dirty,” and “feeble”—all conditions that made them susceptible to both getting and spreading a variety of illnesses.
These stereotypes continue to inform discussions on the transmission of disease over 100 years later. One only needs to consult such online message boards as 8chan to see vile descriptions of the supposedly unhygienic eating habits of the Chinese as the root cause of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet what is more disturbing is the fact that officials in the Trump administration are disseminating these ideas as well.
Chinese Vampires?
On March 12, Michael Caputo—who became the spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services in mid-April—tweeted that COVID-19 spread so rapidly because “millions of Chinese suck the blood out of rabid bats as an appetizer and eat the ass of anteaters.” Caputo has since deleted this horrific tweet, but there is little doubt that such prejudice helps motivate the federal response to what President Trump himself has called the “Chinese virus.”
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Like those coming from China, Jewish immigrants have also seen their cultural practices described as unclean and predisposed to spreading disease. Yet anti-Semitism, as it developed in the United States, added another wrinkle to such a stereotype: that an elite sect of Jewish leaders somehow unjustly benefitted financially from moments of public health crises. Sadly, this absurd notion has resurfaced during the recent pandemic.
One protester at a recent rally against the coronavirus lockdown in Ohio waved a sign, marked by the colors of the Israeli flag, that featured a drawing of a rat with a caricatured Jewish human face and the words “The Real Plague.” Similar events in both Illinois and Colorado pushed this anti-Semitism even further, with protesters holding signs emblazoned with the words “Arbeit Macht Friei” (“Work will set you free”)—the words that appeared at the entrance of the Auschwitz death camp.
Not Just the Fringe
It would be one thing if such ideas were only expressed by fringe protesters in a handful of states. Yet, once again, those who have the ear of Republican leaders are expressing similar sentiments. Casting billionaire philanthropist George Soros as the leader of this global Jewish cabal—which has become commonplace among right-wing activists—former Milwaukee County Sheriff David A Clarke, Jr. tweeted on March 15 that “Not ONE media outlet has asked about George Soros’s involvement in this FLU panic. He is SOMEWHERE involved in this.” On that same day Michael Caputo tweeted, “Soros’s political agenda REQUIRES a pandemic.”
On March 27, Caputo drove home this connection by tweeting a photo of Soros with the caption “The real virus behind everything,” followed by a skull and crossbones emoji. President Trump has also embraced such ideas, albeit in a bit more subtle fashion. Trump has compared the coronavirus to an “Invisible Enemy,” a phrase that has been used by anti-Semites for centuries to describe the secretive nature of the Jewish conspiracy.
As President Trump’s recent efforts to limit legal immigration suggest, these connections between race and disease are being called upon once again to justify legislation. Yet what is perhaps equally as dangerous are the ways these connections are also leading to inaction when it comes to public policy.
As I write this, representatives of the Trump Administration are beginning to argue that it is the cultural practices of certain Americans, namely Americans of color, that is to blame for high mortality rates in certain communities. Such public officials look to the racial disparities in the coronavirus death count and see a diet that leads to such underlying health issues as obesity and diabetes; they do not see the racist, systematic disinvestment that led to such conditions. That blindness, as Chief Justice Roggensack highlights all too well, allows white America the luxury to write off such suffering as simply the fault of the victim – something us “regular folks” can choose to ignore.
