There is a particularly mean-spirited  email floating around that urges you, as a "patriotic American," to boycott all Chinese products from June 4th -July 4th. It's filled with the usual angry flag-waving, breast-beating, "we're-number-one" righteousness that so distinguishes us in the eyes of the global community.
I would object to this email, as it is phrased,  under any circumstances -- because the purpose of its subtext is to fan the flames of a particularly virulent xenophobia in which we are encouraged to regard the Chinese people as if each and every one of them is responsible for what their corporations and product inspectors overlooked.
But I object to this email, in particular, because its timing is as tonedeaf as it is possibly to be.
Have we forgotten the shell shock of loss, the staggering sense of disorientation that gripped this country in the wake of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina??? Why, then, would we so callously decide that this is the moment to reprimand a population that has  been brought to  its knees by the earthquake that killed 69,000 of its citizen -- thousands of whom were schoolchildren?
I work with Chinese exchange students who have been walking around our campus  as if they are the living dead. You know that look -- you saw it personally if you lived in Manhattan in 2001or on the Gulf Coast in 2005; and, regardless of where you live, you saw it in  photograph after photograph, news video after news video.
These students represent everyone in China. They cannot express their grief, as we could not express ours, because there are no words to communicate loss of that magnitude.  Instead, they communicate mutely, silent tears streaming down their faces, as they show us photos and videos that have been sent to them from home. The images are personal and powerful and poignant beyond any imagining. One student has no where to go this summer, as his entire village, as well as his family, is gone.
So, "my fellow Americans,"  I urge you to boycott this boycott. Instead of forwarding this email, just hit "Delete."