UC-Berkeley: 'Xenophobia' is 'common reaction' to coronavirus
The post, which has been deleted, stated that "xenophobia" is a "common reaction" to the coronavirus outbreak.
The University of California-Berkeley has apologized for a post that appeared on a university-run Instagram account.
The University of California-Berkeley has apologized for what many described as “normalizing” racism and xenophobia.
According to multiple screenshots captured and posted online, a now-deleted Instagram post by UC-Berkeley’s University Health Services listed “common reactions” to the coronavirus, which the World Health Organization declared Thursday a “global health emergency.”
”Please recognize that experiencing any of these can be normal reactions and that over the next few days or weeks you may experience periods of: Anxiety, worry, panic; Feeling helplessness; Social withdrawal; Difficulty concentrating and sleeping; Hyper-vigilance to your health and body; Anger; and Xenophobia: fears about interacting with those who might be from Asia and guilt about those feelings,” the post stated.
The school has since acknowledged that it removed the post. In a statement to CBS News, Executive Director of Communications and Media Relations at UC-Berkeley Roqua Montez IV said, “The post has been taken down and we regret any misunderstanding it may have caused.”
The same university-run Instagram account later shared the following statement: “We apologize for our recent post on managing anxiety around Coronavirus. We regret any misunderstanding it may have caused and have updated the language in our materials.”
The post came on the same day the university touted the fact that it stripped John Boalt’s name from a campus building because of Boalt’s role in and support for the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
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