As I sit now, swept up amidst a pandemic often called the "Chinese virus" or "kung flu," those once small, dismissible comments had evolved into an endless tirade of hate and disgust, calling me and my brothers and sisters dirty, uncivilized eaters. Eaters of bats, eaters of dogs, eaters of things the prim and proper and pristine Western inhabitants of the world would never dream of touching. It was because of the eaters that this pandemic--a miserable, devastating, thing--was here. Not the poor downplayed governmental responses, not the indignant refusal of thousands to wear a simple mask, no--it was because of the eaters. Seeing something so incredibly wrong and damaging drove me to create this piece--something just to address that I, the apparent eater of dogs and bats and who knows what else, am not the one to blame. Asia is not dirty, it is not savage, it is not backward. The eaters are tired of being your scapegoat.
