Thumbs down: Anti-Asian hate, the virus spreads

Businesses around the state, including one in Healdsburg, have been receiving an anonymous, racist letter laced with expletives, slurs and stereotypes.|
THE EDITORIAL BOARD

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Businesses around the state owned by Asian Americans have been receiving an anonymous, racist letter laced with expletives, slurs and stereotypes. The letter says “you don’t belong here” and labels the recipients’ ancestral homelands with the same vulgarity that Donald Trump used to describe Africa, Haiti and El Salvador. Copies of the letter first turned up in the Riverside area, and one arrived at a nail salon in Healdsburg. “It was shocking,” Vicky Mai, the owner of All Polish Nails & Spa, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “I was so surprised.” Police in Healdsburg and elsewhere are investigating. The letters come amid a rise in verbal and physical attacks on Asian Americans over the past year. Some blame goes to Trump for his use of racist labels for the coronavirus, but the U.S. has a long history of discrimination against Asians. It needs to end. Thumbs down.

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Editorials represent the views of The Press Democrat editorial board and The Press Democrat as an institution. The editorial board and the newsroom operate separately and independently of one another.

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