THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 38 MARCH 26, 2020
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.Illustration by Joe GoughAnalysisThe Business
Why Trump’s Coronavirus
Reaction Is Racist
The president’s ‘blame-the-black-guy rhetoric and foot-dragging’ reminds
THR’s columnist of the unrepentant Nazis on Amazon’s HuntersCULTURE | KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR
I
n the enthralling thriller series Hunters,
leftover German Nazis from World War
II are living the high life in America
while planning a Fourth Reich built around
a biological attack aimed at killing the poor,
particularly people of color. Far-fetched
liberal posturing? Not if you’ve followed the
Trump administration’s blame-the-black-guy
rhetoric and foot-dragging in reaction to the
COVID-19 outbreak. Seeing its response has
been like watching the gleefully unrepentant
Nazis on the Amazon show. For almost two
months, Trump, like a sneering Bond super-
villain, allowed the virus to spread knowing
that poor communities made up of people of
color would pay the greatest cost. It wasn’t
until it started affecting the Mar-a-Lago set
and their businesses (and therefore his reelec-
tion) that he started to take it seriously.
On March 5, seven weeks after the first
death from the virus in China, Vice President
Mike Pence, who is in charge of the Trump
administration’s response team, said, “With
regard to the cost, let me be very clear: HHS
[Health and Human Services] has designated
the coronavirus test as an essential health
benefit. That means, by definition, it’s cov-
ered in the private health insurance of every
American as well as covered by Medicare and
Medicaid.” As health experts have pointed
out, this statement isn’t “clear” because poli-
cies don’t have to cover the testing. When a
reporter asked Pence whether the testing
would include the uninsured, Pence walked
off without answering as his press secretary
Katie Miller scolded, “Screaming for thecamera isn’t going to get you anywhere!” Tell
that to the 30 million uninsured in the U.S.
Testing the poor was not a priority even
though they, because of the accompanying
health problems resulting from being poor
and their reduced access to medical attention,
are more at risk than the middle and upper
classes who are prioritized for testing. Nor is
staying home from work an option for those
who live on hourly wages and must choose
between earning money for rent and food or
getting infected and spreading the disease.
Add to that the closure of schools, which
keeps children at home, thereby creating a
double burden for lower-
income families: They lose
the benefit of school meals
and parents who are unable
to remain home to care for
the kids.
Trump not only delayed
public health efforts, he
deliberately sabotaged
them through his lies and actions. Most
egregiously, to save money, in 2018 he elimi-
nated the Pandemic Response Team that
President Obama had set up in 2014 to fight
the Ebola threat. As government health
experts warned the public to not shake hands,
Trump deliberately and defiantly did so with
his supporters. As the death toll around the
world rose, on March 9 Trump downplayed
the coronavirus with a tweet incorrectly
comparing it to the common flu. Of course,
CDC studies indicate that the common flu has
a higher mortality rate among the poor than
other economic groups. So, no reason to be
alarmed in Trump Tower.
Amid the public outrage over his lack of
leadership, Trump began to distribute blameto his usual targets. Nonwhite people. For
Trump, the blame falls directly on a black
man, the Chinese and the Mexicans. At his
March 13 news conference, he declared, “I
don’t take responsibility at all.” Instead, he
pointed the finger at his predecessor. Trump
will never get past the fact that Obama was
loved because of his intelligence, compassion,
humor and humanity. Trump isn’t loved but
rather adulated, the way cult members mind-
lessly follow a stern dictatorial father figure
who tells them what to do and think. Like,
well, Nazis.
The Trump administration made a point
of calling COVID-19 the “Chinese flu” or the
“Wuhan flu” in an effort to blame nonwhites.
During a Feb. 28 rally (yes, despite his own
experts’ warning against crowds, he held a
rally), he touted the border wall as necessary
to keep out the virus: “We’ll have 500 miles [of
the Southern border fence] built by very early
next year sometime, so, one of the reasons the
numbers are so good” — a reference to why we
didn’t have a higher number of cases, which
he attributed to the unbuilt wall rather than
the fact that we weren’t testing many people.
“We will do everything in our power to keep
the infection and those carrying the infection
from entering our country.” So far, no cases in
the U.S. have been linked to anyone entering
through the U.S.-Mexico border.
Ironically, it was the NBA, not the USA,
that led the way for responsible practice by
suspending its season. Perhaps the league was
more sensitive to the needs
of all Americans because
76 percent of its players are
people of color.
Referring to politicians
or individuals as Nazis has
become a favorite pastime
in America, almost to the
point where we have diluted
the meaning. Everybody can’t be a Nazi just
because they disagree with you. They have
to exhibit a will to exalt the fortunes of their
“people,” based on race, religion, etc., above
the welfare of all others, even to the point of
exterminating all others.
The Nazis in Hunters are powerful people
in business and government, devoted to
protecting only those they deem worthwhile
humans. The government’s early response to
coronavirus was not a Nazi conspiracy, but it’s
Nazi-adjacent, meaning that the same attitude
regarding race and class are being employed
in determining who’s worthy of government
protection. Despite the limp efforts of Pence
and his administration lackeys to now praise
Trump for his mythological early and deci-
sive actions, his actual failure as a leader will
forever be Trump’s legacy of shame.KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR is an
NBA Hall of Famer and a contributing
editor at The Hollywood Reporter.Al Pacino (left) and Logan Lerman in Hunters.10biz_kareem_L [P]{Print}_53642590.indd 38 3/24/20 1:40 PM