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- ABC News
- April 5, 2020
Andrew Yang facing backlash for his op-ed
The former presidential candidate has been criticized for comments last week.
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\"We are fighting two viruses at once,\" Simu Liu, an Asian Canadian actor who's best known in his role in the TV show \"Kim's Convenience,\" said, calling Yang's op-ed \"a slap in the face.\"
Set to play Shang Chi, the first Asian American superhero in the Marvel Universe, Liu initially responded on April 2 to the piece on Twitter: \"At a time where Asian diaspora from around the world are experiencing massive racism and discrimination, @AndrewYang basically just told us to suck it up, eat a cheeseburger and buy an American flag.\"
To which Yang responded the next day, \"Just saying that we need to do all we can to ease this crisis and step up in this time of national and global need,\" adding that he's proud of his heritage and knows people will have different takes.
Thanks Simu. Just saying that we need to do all we can to ease this crisis and step up in this time of national and global need. Lead and serve. Very proud of my heritage and know that different people will have different takes.
— Andrew Yang🧢 (@AndrewYang) April 3, 2020
Liu, who said he recently experienced harassment when someone yelled \"coronavirus\" at him outside a restaurant in Sydney, said he appreciates the dialogue from Yang but believes he backpedaled and failed to address the problem.
\"It frames the onus on us, somehow we have to prove we are worthy of belonging. We do belong, the burden should not be on us,\" Liu told ABC News.
Yang's team had no comment when ABC News reached out for a response.
The call for Asian Americans to display their \"American-ness\" was only part of the problem, experts argue. Yang's invocation of Japanese-Americans who volunteered for military duty during World War II, without proper historical context, was another point of contention, they said.
\"Many in our community, during and after the forced removal of our families in '42, argued precisely what Yang is saying. Just be good Americans, don't make waves or protest, show how patriotic we are and everything will be fine. Well, my family lost their constitutional rights. I wouldn't consider that 'just fine,'\" Bruce Embrey, the co-chair of the Manzanar Committee, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raise awareness about the incarceration of Japanese-Americans in World War II, told ABC News.
Embrey, who had four uncles serve in WWII, says their heroism shows an incomplete story. His mother's family was held at Manzanar, a concentration camp in California, where there were protests and strikes. Japanese-Americans spoke up and actively challenged the notion of patriotism, Embrey added, and that led to progress like the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which offered redress to every Japanese-American incarcerated during the war.
\"Fighting for one’s rights against inequality and racism has been a constant in our nation’s history. Fighting back is as American as you can get,\" Embrey said.
This isn't the first time Yang has found himself in hot water with the Asian community. He faced criticism when he used racial stereotypes in his speeches, saying the \"opposite of Donald Trump is an Asian guy who likes math,\" referring to his campaign slogan \"Make America Think Harder.\"
In a September Democratic presidential debate, Yang said, \"I'm Asian so I know a lot of doctors\" when addressing the health care system in the U.S.
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Author and journalist Jeff Yang, whose work has focused on Asian American identity, points out that Yang has a unique and challenging role when it comes to representing Asian Americans in national politics, a community that's \"almost as diverse as the country at large.\"
The complex nature of the group is why Yang needs to be more thoughtful, Jeff Yang told ABC News, especially with such a significant platform. He said Andrew Yang should clarify people's perceptions of Asian Americans rather than dilute them into racial tropes.
In March, the FBI released an analysis predicting an increase in hate-crime incidents against Asian Americans \"based on the assumption that a portion of the US public will associate COVID-19 with China and Asian American populations.\" The analysis indicated there has already been an increase in reports of hate crimes from Los Angeles to New York to Texas.
With the rising wave of coronavirus-related racism, groups like the Asian Pacific Policy & Planning Council, Chinese for Affirmative Action and San Francisco State University's Asian American Studies Department launched sites allowing people to report cases. In just the past two weeks, they have received over 1,100 reports with incidents ranging from verbal harassment and shunning to physical assault.
Asian American Advancing Justice, the nation's largest Asian American legal and civil rights organization, has also been tracking coronavirus-related racist incidents.
Stewart Kwoh, founder of Asian American Advancing Justice- Los Angeles, believes the winning strategy to combat racist behavior is twofold: first, people need to stand up, call it out and mobilize other groups for support, and second, there needs to be unity against the virus, our common enemy.
\"I think he (Yang) neglected to emphasize the first part; he did not take a strong stand on fighting racism, that's where the criticism is well taken,\" Kwoh told ABC News. Given that, Kwoh believes Yang's heart was in the right place and that some of his argument is valid.
Every major shift in culture in this country came from people who spoke up, Jeff Yang said, adding, \"It's not about an apology, but a bigger conversation, and that means loud noises and resistance.\"