On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher reacted to Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) accusing proponents of a ban on TikTok of racism by stating that the racism accusation is a “crazy card” played by some people that you somehow can’t criticize China — a country that commits a massive host of human rights violations — because doing so would make you racist.
Maher said China is “a country that puts the Uyghurs in camps, they’re the country that locks you in your apartment if you had COVID, they did crazy things. It’s a president for life, it’s a surveillance state. It’s — and I saw there’s one Congressman, Bowman of New York, who said, this is all — this is wrong, because it’s racist. This crazy card that they play — some people — that you can’t — China [is] the new Islam, you can’t criticize any human rights violations because it makes you racist.”
New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business Marketing Professor Scott Galloway responded that he got accused of being a bigot when he called for a ban on TikTok months ago, but now, the debate has shifted and there is widespread bipartisan opposition to the app.
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