During “The China Virus” we must have discussions with impressionable children, teens, and young adults. Don’t let this crisis go to waste. Teach them to respect individuals and reject the collectivist, identity mindset.

Parents, grandparents, teachers, and other mentors should not assume youths understand the evils of racism, xenophobia and other forms of prejudice and bigotry that emerge from the scourge of group identity. Schools, the media, and higher academe instill in them a false virtue of identifying and judging individuals on a basis of race, color, creed, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, and more. It is the modern incarnation of past authoritarian practices that segregated and enslaved on a basis of factional identity.

Just as adults should teach the birds and bees, they should explain why good people do not judge on a basis of immutable traits or the sins of an individual’s ancestors and relatives. Tell them to assess each person on the basis of character, not mass identity branding. Suggest they always default to a loving assumption other individuals are good and worth getting to know and understand for what’s in their hearts and minds.

Instead of a society that elevates each individual’s unique qualities, we have one increasingly defined by identity politics pushed by influencers of every background and on every point of the political spectrum. Politicians openly pander to segmented demographics, insisting they are victims in need of rescue. They speak of “intersectionality” to escalate and complicate the identity-first approach to human relationships. It fuels traditional prejudice with a deceptive, contemporary, smart-sounding spin. It says we should show empathy by dividing up humanity like breeds at a dog show. Pugs in this ring, Chihuahuas over there. Meanwhile, let’s marginalize European mutts.

The human-breed philosophy manifests in silly and insulting language among the confused, as when former Vice President Joe Biden says “poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids,” or Barack Obama is the first “African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.” Or, President Donald Trump calls a Latino judge, born in Indiana, “a Mexican.”

Colleges and universities encourage the dog-breed worldview by establishing special living quarters for ethnic groups. The University of Colorado-Boulder has at least three segregated “Living Learning Communities” for “black-identified students,” “students passionate about diversity,” and “LGBTQIA-identifying students.” Evergreen State College students demonized Prof. Bret Weinstein for coming to work on “Day of Absence,” in which white people were told to stay home. Video went viral in February of a University of Virginia student complaining there were “too many white people” in the campus diversity center.

Routine social media discussions demonize whites, blacks, Christians, Muslims, heterosexuals, homosexuals, men, etc., ad infinitum. Self-appointed moralists use “white male” to discredit the views of a demographic composed of autonomous individuals. In doing so they incite people, including white men, to identify by race. Some threads are overtly racist. More often they are cloaked in the self-righteous demonization of demographic “A” for the purpose of coddling demographic “B.” Either way, it foments hatred and divides us.

In a society that rushes to identify persons by race, gender, color, creed, nationality, etc. – whether under sinister intent or the guise of virtue – we should not be surprised that bullies are tormenting people of Asian descent during the pandemic. We are told at every turn to first view an individual on the basis of group identity.

Gazette reporter Debbie Kelley documented an upsurge in discrimination against Asians in the United States, including American citizens, since COVID-19 spread from China. One woman, a local American of Philippino descent, long encountered no nationalistic harassment since migrating here and naturalizing years ago. Since the virus, bigots have tormented her as if she is to blame. Escalating reports of aggression toward Asians include everything from insults to physical assaults.

We can logically blame the communist Chinese government for lying, deceiving, and covering up COVID-19 to the world’s detriment. The evidence is overwhelming. Communist regimes reliably elevate propagandist deception above all else. The dictatorship’s handling of the outbreak mirrors the old Soviet Union’s early-stage efforts to cover up and downplay the Chernobyl meltdown while there was an opportunity for international assistance.

No rational person should blame Chinese individuals for COVID-19. They are first-line victims of an oppressive, genocidal government that abuses and enslaves on a basis of ethnoreligious identity. To the communist – much like the identity polemicist – group identity ranks high; the individual is brandable and dismissible. The Chinese people deserve our support, not derision and suspicion.

Even more ignorant is to associate the virus with immigrants or descendants associated with China or any other part of Asia. They have nothing to do with it and are no more likely to carry the disease than anyone else of any background. Asian culture has done nothing to U.S. society other than improve it.

Feel free to blame Chinese rulers for the rapid spread of COVID-19. Trade “China Virus” with the more accurate “Communist Virus” – a label that acknowledges the corruption of schemes that treat humans as expendable members of herds. Use this occasion to teach about the human rights abuses that always emerge from tyranny. Teach our young people individuals are equal in the eyes of the creator, no matter what they look like, who they worship, who they love, or where they come from. Teach them to first be kind and to always lead with respect and care.