The U.S. president’s order asking the country’s intelligence officials to look into the origin of COVID-19 is likely to have consequences.

Joe Biden wants to know if the pandemic can be traced to a laboratory in China. In other words, he suspects that this could be a man-made crisis, which has not yet been established by science.

Until now, the World Health Organization has been saying that the virus originated from an animal.

While it is important to know the source of the disease that has claimed 3.5 milllion human lives across the globe to prevent any future catastrophes, Biden’s position on the issue isn’t helpful.

Any suggestion of this being the result of lab leak will give racists another excuse to go after people of Asian heritage in our communities. People of Chinese ancestry, in particular, continue to face outright bigotry ever since the pandemic broke out. There have been number of violent incidents, including the mass murder of six Asian women in U.S.

Whereas previous U.S. president Donald Trump was blunt in his racism and precipitated this hate by repeatedly calling the pandemic a “China virus”, Biden has only rephrased it in a sophisticated language.

This is reminiscent of the famous words of Malcolm X, the hero of the Black resistance movement, who differentiated between Republicans and Democrats as the wolves and foxes, respectively.

"No matter what, they'll both eat you," he said.

If Trump was a science denier, Biden has gone a step further by wading into the territory of science with his brand of imperialist politics. It's no coincidence that China is being isolated internationally by the U.S., Canada, and India on many other issues, such as human rights, trade, and territorial matters.

COVID-19 is just the pretext for bashing the common enemy.

Biden’s controversial statement at this juncture will give legitimacy to those targeting Chinese community almost every day. His remarks have already sparked a fierce debate on social media. So much so that Facebook has decided not to block any post claiming that COVID-19 could be man-made, thus creating more space for hate and conspiracy theories.

As of now, white supremacists think it is justified to punish Chinese people for COVID-19. Why shouldn't they be told to pack up their bags and leave for Europe as their elders came from there and destroyed Indigenous population in the U.S. and Canada by bringing in smallpox?

It is time to be careful and sensitive about what we say. We must fight the pandemic together instead of scapegoating a minority group, as COVID-19 knows no race or boundaries.