Jeannie Mai Slams Racist Coronavirus Jokes About Her and Boyfriend Jeezy: 'Educate Yourself'
Jeannie Mai is calling out trolls for making offensive jokes about her Asian heritage and the coronavirus outbreak.
During Wednesday’s episode of The Real, Mai, 41, condemned social media comments about the deadly illness posted on photos of her and her boyfriend Jeezy at New York Fashion Week.
“When Jeezy and I were in fashion week just recently and there were pictures posted, I saw in the comments on other blogs a couple times of like, ‘Don’t be catching that coronavirus Jeezy,’ ” Mai said. “Or, ‘she got that corona that latched him in.’ And that’s so hurtful because there are actually people that are dying from this.”
“And I also heard that there are schools that are considering to quarantine Asian kids because they just want to keep it safe,” she continued. “This is real life out there. I just want to say, we know that misinformation coupled with fear leads to Xenophobia. Xenophobia is a deep-rooted fear against foreigners. We just got to do better and know that when it comes to yourself, educate yourself so that you don’t life to fears.”
Co-host Loni Love supported Mai and emphasized the importance of learning about the coronavirus, which has killed 1,018 people as of Feb. 11.
“Just a reminder that coronavirus is not airborne, it’s not that,” said Love, 48. “So wearing a mask doesn’t … because we had Dr. Oz come on and we said, ‘Come on Dr. Oz, explain this to us.’ So it’s going to be online, look at that and look at what he said about the coronavirus.”
“Also if you are Asian and you’re feeling something, I would recommend, I read, that they said that you should actually talk about it and put out the stories because that’s how, just like on black Twitter we share our stories of racism, you guys need to do that too,” she said.
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Added co-host Adrienne Bailon Houghton, “And we need to, again, be allies to our Asian folks, our Asian friends, and stand with them. If you see something, say something. Don’t let people put up memes like that.”
Mai then ran into the audience, happily hugging different people as the co-hosts laughed.
“Like really, it’s okay, we’re all right,” she insisted.
RELATED VIDEO: Global Efforts Against the Spread of the Coronavirus Continue to Take Place
Coronavirus is a blanket term for several respiratory illnesses, ranging from the common cold to more severe viruses such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Symptoms typically include fever, cough, trouble breathing, headache and sore throat. For people who have severe cases, it can turn into pneumonia, SARS, kidney failure and death, according to the World Health Organization.
Worldwide, there are now 43,141 confirmed cases of this new coronavirus, with the majority — 42,670 — occurring in mainland China. Most deaths occurred in people over 60 with preexisting conditions, and all but two were in mainland China.
And thus far, there have been 13 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the U.S., seven of which are in California. The other five cases have been found in Seattle; Phoenix; Madison, Wisconsin; Chicago and Boston.
