‘China Virus’ sign at Oregon bar leads Yelp to shut down customer reviews on its page
Yelp is stepping in after an Oregon bar posted a “China Virus” sign on its marquee.
Trophy Club Bar and Grill in Medford, Oregon, posted “China Virus hrs” on the sign outside its restaurant, a photo shared to social media shows. The message shared the bar’s hours Monday.
Ken Narasaki, who posted the photo to Facebook, said it proves that “racism is alive and sick in Medford.”
“I know from my own personal experience and from the experience of many of my Asian American friends, not to mention countless news articles that Trump’s (and others’) use of the racist term ‘China Virus’ led directly to hatred, open hostility, and violence against Asians and Asian Americans,” Narasaki wrote in his post.
The sign commanded so much attention that the bar’s Yelp page was bombarded with reviews. The influx of posts led the restaurant reviewing service to shut down posts while it investigates the content of the posts.
“While racism has no place on Yelp and we unequivocally reject racism in any form, all reviews on Yelp must reflect an actual first-hand consumer experience (even if that means disabling the ability for users to express points of view we might agree with),” Yelp wrote in a message on Trophy Club’s page.
Trophy Club told News 10 in a written statement that workers have received death threats since the photo of the sign went viral.
”The sign was not intended to be racist,” Trophy Club told News 10. “It was to make light out of the situation we all have been going through for the past year. We apologize to whoever we offended. That was not our intention.”
Asian Americans have reported surges of xenophobia and racist incidents during the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Anti-Defamation League, an anti-hate group.
“These incidents include being told to ‘Go back to China,’ being blamed for ‘bringing the virus’ to the United States, being referred to with racial slurs, spat on, or physically assaulted,” the group said. “Statements by public officials referring to COVID-19 as the ‘Chinese virus,’ ‘Kung Flu’ or ‘Wu Flu’ may be exacerbating the scapegoating and targeting of the AAPI (Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders) community.”
President Joe Biden signed an executive order last week that, among other things, aimed to avoid usage of terms such as “China Virus” in official federal government releases — saying the administration wanted “to ensure that official actions, documents, and statements, including those that pertain to the COVID-19 pandemic, do not exhibit or contribute to racism, xenophobia, and intolerance against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.”
The order came after former President Donald Trump had often referred to COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus” during rallies and on social media.
“The Federal Government must recognize that it has played a role in furthering these xenophobic sentiments through the actions of political leaders, including references to the COVID-19 pandemic by the geographic location of its origin,” the memorandum from the Biden White House reads. “Such statements have stoked unfounded fears and perpetuated stigma about Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and have contributed to increasing rates of bullying, harassment, and hate crimes against AAPI persons.”
The coronavirus was first reported in Wuhan, China, and swept across Asia and then the world, according to McClatchy News. Since then, there have been about 100,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported in China as of Feb. 2, according to Johns Hopkins University.
As of Tuesday, there have been more than 26.3 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported in the U.S. and more than 443,000 people have died from the coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University.
This story was originally published February 2, 2021 at 11:09 AM with the headline "‘China Virus’ sign at Oregon bar leads Yelp to shut down customer reviews on its page."