Lana Condor called out President Trump for his “racist words and actions” in his coronavirus response

In recent tweets and press conferences about the growing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Donald Trump has been repeatedly referring to COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus.” He is, once again, being called out for his racist remarks, which are putting Asian Americans at risk of xenophobic attacks and harassment. One such call-out comes from To All the Boys star Lana Condor, who responded to Trump’s racism on Twitter.

Condor attached to her tweet a message for Trump, pointing out that linking COVID-19 to a group of people is only fueling fires of hate and fear toward Asian Americans. “You have no idea the ramifications your racist words & actions have on the Asian American community,” Condor wrote. “You simply cannot even fathom the danger you are putting our community in. How dare you. You should be ashamed of yourself.”

“To wake up to your chaos is truly a nightmare,” Condor’s tweet read. “Please be better. To my followers—be safe. I love you.”

Condor described what a “good leader” does. She specifically mentioned Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, who is donating millions of masks, testing kits, protective suits, and face shields to countries around the world in an effort to help slow the spread of coronavirus.

“You know what leaders do? They LEAD by setting good examples and ACTION. Something we’ve yet to see you do. You need to take notes,” she said, asking Trump to “be better, so we aren’t afraid to leave our house in fear someone will verbally or physically abuse us because of your xenophobia.”

For his part, Trump has denied the allegations of racism, claiming that he is using the term because, as he said, “It comes from China, that’s why. I want to be accurate.”

But since the start of the pandemic, there have been several reports of hate crimes against Asian Americans motivated by fear of the coronavirus, as NBC News reports.

Words matter—especially those of our president—and putting people in danger because of those words and the meaning behind them is never okay.

As information about the coronavirus pandemic rapidly changes, HelloGiggles is committed to providing accurate and helpful coverage to our readers. As such, some of the information in this story may have changed after publication. For the latest on COVID-19, we encourage you to use online resources from CDC, WHO, and local public health departments, and visit our coronavirus hub.