Metal signs portraying the cartoon character Winnie-The-Pooh using chopsticks to eat a bowl of bat soup alongside the words “Wuhan Plague” have been posted on several buildings in East Atlanta, Georgia.

The artist used Winnie-The-Pooh because China infamously banned images of the cartoon bear in 2018 after Prime Minister Xi Jinping was trolled online by internet users who mocked his resemblance to the fictional teddy.

As the person or group behind the stunt likely hoped for, liberals and left-wing media are enraged by the plaques, with Vice News calling them, “racist.”

According to the Vice article, the signs “first appeared April 13 on an electrical box in Inman Park, according to Atlanta police. Another appeared three days later at a coffee shop in the neighborhood of Reynoldstown. The most recent incident occurred on April 18 at Atlanta’s Candler Park Market.”

Krystle Rodriguez, the owner of the coffee shop that was vandalized, said the signs were “reinforcing really awful stereotypes.”

“I have Asian American friends that said it’s allergy season and they’re afraid to sneeze in public because of all of the hate speech,” she claimed.

Rodriguez posted about the incident on Facebook:

However, Atlanta police department spokesperson Carlos Campos said the act will not be investigated as a racial crime without further proof of a racial motive.

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