Maher: China’s Abuses Would Get More Outcry if They Were in Europe, They Get ‘Free Pass’ Due to Fear of Racism Charges

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher argued that “fear of being accused of racism has given a free pass on human rights abuses to China” and China’s human rights abuses would receive more outcry if they were taking place in a country that was viewed as white.

Maher stated, “Why was it racist to think that COVID might have originated from a lab leak as opposed to from eating bats? Besides the fact that the idea that COVID came from eating gross, weird food seems way more racist than the idea that it came from a high-tech lab, besides that, the definition of woke was supposed to be, being alert to injustice in society. But because the woke now see race first and everything else never, fear of being accused of racism has given a free pass on human rights abuses to China and any other places that are perceived as non-white. If China was in Europe, would they get away with having concentration camps without more of an outcry from America? … The Chinese classify transgender as a mental illness. They just edited ‘Friends’ episodes so that Ross’ wife is definitely not a lesbian. How would that go over here?”

He concluded, “Didn’t Martin Luther King say, an ‘injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere’? Can we still quote him? In 2020, NBA players wore jerseys that said, ‘Freedom,’ ‘Speak Up,’ and ‘Justice,’ but I guess those things only matter for home games. Sorry, Uyghurs. Someone has to tell me where we got this rule that you can’t criticize China. Because I suspect we got it from China.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett