A Texas attorney has come under fire for telling an Asian man there may be an opening at the Wuhan laboratory after he shared his story of being laid-off from Tesla last week.
Charlie Liu wrote that he left his job for an offer at Tesla earlier this year, but after a delayed start, the company told him 'the position was no longer needed.'
'I did not fail my background check, nor did I ever act in any manner that would cause a company to rescind their offer like this,' the post said. 'Yet here I am back on my job search because I have already left my previous company.'
He asked for any advice, and many of the more than 3,000 comments seemed to point him to career opportunities.
In response, Karan Joshi wrote: 'Hey charlie, the Wuhan lab may have an opening, good luck.' The racist comment was shared by Nicole Hu on Tik Tok
Charlie Liu took to LinkedIn to share his experience with working for Tesla
He said that he quit his old job to join Tesla, but a few days before his start date the company told him his position was no longer needed
Liu wrote that he is now once again looking for a job and asked for advice
But one comment by Karan Joshi, a personal injury attorney from Texas, garnered some attention.
In the since-deleted comment, The San Francisco Gate reports, Joshi wrote: 'Hey Charlie, the Wuhan lab may have an opening. Good luck.'
Joshi has since appeared to have deleted his LinkedIn.
He is described as a 'dedicated attorney from New Delhi, India' who earned his Doctor of Jurisprudence at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego on the website for the Thomas J. Henry Law Firm where he works.
The law firm has since released a statement saying that Joshi was hacked and is working with LinkedIn officials to track down the hacker.
'Today one of our employees notified our office that an offensive statement was posted from his LinkedIn to the profile of another LinkedIn user,' the statement says. 'The employee informed us that he was not the source of this message and that he believes his Linked In account has been hacked.'
'The employee is currently working with LinkedIn to investigate the source of the hack and has requested that the offending statement be removed immediately, it continues. 'The firm is awaiting further information from LinkedIn regarding their investigation.'
It added: 'Thomas J. Henry Law, PLLC does not condone discrimination or derogatory statements of any kind. We take this issue very seriously and are taking steps to ensure that the matter is addressed immediately.'
The Thomas J. Henry Law Firm issued a statement saying that Joshi was hacked
The Wuhan Institute of Virology, more colloquially known as the Wuhan lab, has gained much media attention over the past few months as the theory that it leaked the coronavirus has gained traction.
The Huanan wet market, where scientists say the first cluster of infections were officially reported, is just a few hundred yards from the Wuhan Centers for Disease Prevention and Control and only a few miles from the the Wuhan Institute of Virology Lab, where scientists were reportedly conducting experiments on bats before the pandemic began.
The lab is one of only a handful in the world that is cleared to handle Class 4 pathogens — dangerous viruses that pose a high risk of person-to-person transmission.
Nicole Hu, a travel influencer shared the comment on TikTok, saying: 'I don't know why Karan Joshi decided to comment this s***. But this is the type of racism and Xenophobia Asian people, and specifically Chinese people, see every day now.'
More than 100 people commented on the TikTok, berating Joshi for his comment, with one user writing, 'That guy is still constantly harassing other people.'
Others on TikTok seemed surprised that he would make a racist statement on LinkedIn, a site typically used for business networking.
'Why would he do that?' one user asked. 'He wants to ruin his career?'
Another wrote: 'But the stupidity of this guy, like you would choose openly show your racism on a job application website?'
It comes amid a rise in Asian hate crimes.
The group Stop AAPI Hate - the acronym that stand for Asian-American and Pacific Islander - released a report in March that said there were 3,795 incidents reported to the group between March 19, 2020 and the end of February 2021.
On May 20, Vice President Kamala Harris said that figure has increased to 6,600 incidents over the past few months in the United States, and that's likely an under-reporting.
That day, President Joseph Biden signed an anti-Asian hate bill that charges the Department of Justice to go after those who commit hate crimes against Asian people.
'I believe with every fiber in my being that there are simple, core values and beliefs that should bring us together as Americans. One of them is standing together against hate. Against racism. The ugly poison that has long haunted and plagued our nation,' Biden said. 'You've taken that first step. It's an important step.'
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