"Imagine making a joke about a disease that’s killing thousands while also being racist at the same time, couldn’t be me," A disgusted fan tweets.

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29 January 2020 by Fachana Techamaneewat

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LAS VEGAS - MAY 21: BTS at the 2017 Billboard Awards Press Room at the T-Mobile Arena on May 21, 2017 in Las Vegas, NV — Photo by Jean_Nelson

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On January 26, a racist tweet that joked that K-pop group, BTS, had coronavirus went viral on the day of the Grammys 2020. Fans quickly slammed the tweet, calling it "racist" and "insensitive".

 

Let's rewind.

 

Ever since the new coronavirus hit headlines, several Asian people have been on the tail end of racist and xenophobic "jokes".

 

On January 26, the day of the Grammys 2020, a tweet went viral that said:

 

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I "Everyone at the Grammys when BTS starts coughing"[GIF of someone screaming and moving desperately out of a car, shouting "Move!".]

 

 

The tweet has since gained over 1.5 million views, 22.3k retweets and over 85.4k likes.

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Of course, the public has since slammed the Twitter user and those who "liked" the tweet.

 

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I "Do...do y’all not understand how this is racist? You’re saying just because BTS is Asian they must be diseased w the coronavirus. And this has 20k rts..."

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I "Imagine making a joke about a disease that’s killing thousands while also being racist at the same time, couldn’t be me."

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I "Around 70k brains has been found in the ditch. Can't believe this tweet got this many likes. Y'all are disgusting for making memes out of this."

 

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People are even comparing it to the Ebola virus epidemic in 2014, where racist jokes were made towards black people, and the swine flu pandemic in 2009 where racist jokes were made towards Mexicans.

 

Two days later, the Twitter user who tweeted the joke, responded unapologetically, tweeting: "DM/Cashapp me and I'll delete [it] 🙃"

 

 

Unfortunately, it didn't stop there. Some trolls even went as far as suggesting theories that Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Jay Z didn't attend the Grammys 2020 because they were allocated seats next to, and in front of, BTS.

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However, when the seating allocation was initially revealed, it was announced as "tentative". There was also no official announcement from the three celebrities that they were going to attend the Grammys 2020. Taylor Swift and Beyoncé also skipped last year's Grammys.

 

 

American singer-songwriter, Mxmtoon slams racist jokes about the coronavirus.

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Mxmtoon (also known as Maia) is Chinese-American on her mother's side, and she has since spoken out about the racist jokes made involving the coronavirus in a Twitter thread:

 

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I "the amount that racism against asians is normalized in society is so fucked up and you can see it with the xenophobic mess that are coronavirus jokes. the deaths of individuals is not a laughing matter, and your blatant racism isn’t funny either."

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I "i had to deal with people making passing comments about eating dogs and saying “Ching Chong” to me my entire life. now i go onto social media only to see it’s plagued with jokes about avoiding Chinese people with a cough, and barely anyone lifts an eyebrow."

 

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In other news, BTS member, V (Taehyung), told fans to take care of themselves in the midst of the coronavirus epidemic via the app, Weverse:

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I "everyone take care of your health, safety is the best. You can get infected before you even know it so don’t forget and be a bit careful."

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BTS Jungkook's Chinese fanbase had also sprung into action, organizing an emergency fundraiser that raised $7,500, with the money being donated to Wuhan, the Chinese city that has a large number of coronavirus cases, in an effort to give monetary help to the situation.

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