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Jan. 8, 2021 - Radio Renaissance - Jared Taylor

08:59

Xenophobia Can Save Your Life

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	Hello, I'm Jared Taylor with American Renaissance.
	When the coronavirus first started making news, we were flooded with warnings not to let a mere virus turn us into racists.
	Time magazine flatted that as coronavirus spreads, so does xenophobia and anti-Asian racism.
	Forbes told us, stop using the coronavirus as an excuse to be racist.
	The Economist warned that the coronavirus spreads racism against and among unethnic Chinese.
	The San Francisco Examiner got on the bandwagon with, as new coronavirus spreads, another epidemic looms.
	Yellow peril racism.
	You heard about all those maniac white people hanging Chinese from lampposts, right?
	Here's one from The Guardian.
	Sensationalist media is exacerbating racist coronavirus fears.
	We need to combat it.
	But my favorite was from The Washington Post.
	The actual danger of the coronavirus.
	Fear may fuel racism and xenophobia that threaten human rights.
	You see, the real danger isn't that you could die.
	Our greatest fear during this outbreak of coronavirus shouldn't be about its spread.
	It should be focused on the much more likely danger that fear and xenophobia will lead to restrictions on the human rights of Chinese and Chinese Americans.
	I think the biggest threat to the human rights of the Chinese is their own government.
	But I guess I'm just being xenophobic.
	The message here is very clear.
	The real problem is racism and white people.
	But that's pretty much what the media always tell us, isn't it?
	And white wickedness runs deep.
	This article in the Columbia Journalism Review is called The New Coronavirus and Racist Tropes.
	Believe it or not, the author is upset because newspapers actually wrote that the virus might have come from bats sold in bushmeat markets where you can buy live snakes and turtles and rats and civet cats and other strange stuff for dinner.
	You see, if you read that, you might think the Chinese are different from us.
	And that's a racist trope.
	Business Insider found someone who said that we tend to understand these events through our past disease rhetoric, which is rooted in fear.
	Stigma. Scapegoating.
	Well, he's a Hispanic in the Department of Communications at the University of Illinois, so I guess he knows all about communicable diseases.
	Vox got all excited with an article called The Coronavirus Exposes the History of Racism and Cleanliness.
	It says that using a disease as an excuse to keep people out has, quote, long been baked into Western culture.
	Only white people would do such a thing.
	The people who agonize over this are probably the very ones who love to remind us that when white people came to the New World, they brought measles and whooping cough and smallpox and killed off millions of Indians.
	Well, did that make the Indians xenophobic?
	Oh, no.
	Only white people are xenophobic.
	Of course, you don't have to go back nearly that far to find newcomers showing up with diseases.
	The 2009 swine flu pandemic started in Mexico.
	It got around the world and killed 17,000 people.
	Chagas disease is from Central and South America.
	People get it from an insect, especially if they live in mud shacks with thatched roofs.
	The CDC says 300,000 people in the US have it, and almost all of them are from south of the border.
	Tuberculosis used to be a problem in Europe and the US, but we essentially eliminated it.
	Now, according to the CDC, foreigners, especially refugees, bring in most of our cases.
	And leprosy?
	This headline says, leprosy outbreak in the United States only a matter of time, one physician argues.
	That's because there are 2 to 3 million cases around the world, some of them are coming here, and homeless people could start passing it around.
	Hantavirus is rare, but it has a mortality rate of 38%.
	Compare that to the 1-5% of the coronavirus.
	It was first discovered in the United States in 1993.
	It comes from South America and is also called Andes virus.
	So, obviously, foreigners can bring diseases with them.
	Any sensible immigration policy screens for that.
	And, obviously, we have no idea what diseases illegal immigrants may be bringing.
	We actually have sound, instinctive reasons to be xenophobes.
	Everyone knows about the body's immune system, which fights disease.
	We also have a behavioral immune system.
	All people everywhere instinctively avoid certain things that could make us sick: piles of feces, rotting flesh, people with running sores.
	Part of this behavioral immune system is an instinctive fear that people who act or look strange may be carrying diseases.
	This paper is called The Behavioral Immune System and the Psychology of Human Sociality.
	It points out that the potential cost of being around suspicious-looking people is high.
	They could be sick.
	You could catch a disease and die.
	The cost of avoiding suspicious-looking people is low.
	Just walk away.
	As this paper explains, the behavioral immune system must be sensitive to a very broad range of cues that might be potential indicators of infection.
	Indeed, it has been suggested that any perceived deviation from prototypical human morphology and motor behavior may implicitly connote potential infection risk.
	Any weird appearance or behavior could be a danger sign.
	Strangers can also have immune systems that are different from yours.
	Your immune system works best with diseases it's familiar with.
	Strangers may be carrying bugs that don't do much to them but could kill you.
	That was the problem for American Indians when they met Europeans who had measles.
	Strangers with different immune systems may not follow the hygiene practices that you do or handle food the same way you do because they don't have to.
	People in third world countries drink water and eat food that would make you sick because they're used to that.
	If they bring their practices with them and cook your food, that could make you sick.
	This book is called The Parasite Stress Theory of Values and Sociality.
	Note the subtitle.
	Infectious Disease, History and Human Values Worldwide.
	Everyone has an instinct and good reasons to avoid the unfamiliar.
	These authors cite studies that find, and I quote, conservative values are defenses that reduce contact with infectious diseases.
	And this is from The Atlantic.
	Why pregnancy makes women xenophobic.
	During the first trimester, a woman's immune system becomes less active so it won't attack the fetus.
	This means the woman is more susceptible to ordinary disease, but she takes protective measures.
	During this period, a woman is naturally more disgusted than usual by dirt and rot and dead things, and she is notably more xenophobic.
	Her body is telling her that while her immune system is temporarily turned down, she should avoid anything or anyone strange and possibly dangerous.
	Now, remember all those articles that said that what we really need to worry about is not the virus, but xenophobia.
	Well, tell me, what is everybody doing about the virus now?
	Quarantine, lockdown, social distancing, travel bans.
	The entire country of Italy is under quarantine.
	Japan has banned people from China and Korea.
	In New York, Governor Cuomo set up what's called the New Rochelle Containment Area and is using the National Guard to keep it isolated.
	Australia won't let in anyone from China, Korea, Iran, or Italy.
	Same for Hungary.
	Israel is making every single person entering the country go through a 14-day quarantine.
	President Trump just banned travel from Europe.
	Sounds pretty xenophobic to me.
	But it's exactly what our instincts are telling us to do.
	Trust your instincts.
	Xenophobia can save your life.
	Thanks for watching.
	Please subscribe to our YouTube channel.
	Also, come take a look at our podcast channel.
	That's on YouTube at Amran Podcasts.
	Also, please visit our website.

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