An image published by a cartoonist working for the New York Daily News, which satirizes Asian-American mayoral candidate Andrew Yang as a tourist, has ignited anger from the Asian community in New York, who accused the cartoon of being “blatant discrimination.”
The cartoon was posted on Tuesday by Bill Bramhall, an editorial cartoonist at New York Daily News. It depicts Yang gleefully emerging from the Times Square subway station while a gift shop owner quips “The tourists are back.”
This picture is believed to be related to Yang’s words earlier. In an interview with local comedian Ziwe, Yang said that his favorite subway station is Times Square. Later, some accused him of not being a real New Yorker, as “real New Yorkers hate the tourist-choked Times Square.”
However, calling Yang a tourist stirred up discontent among many in the Asian-American community, as it is a common discriminatory statement against Asian-Americans. They believe the cartoon is extremely disrespectful and will further encourage hatred against Asians.
An Asian-American Twitter user Aerin Chen commented below the cartoon, calling the picture “very hurtful.” Chen wrote, “Do you know why hate crimes have been rising? This.”
Evelyn Yang, wife to Andrew, was also outraged by the comic. “I can’t believe my eyes,” she said on Twitter. “To publish this racist disfiguration of Andrew Yang as a tourist, in NYC where I was born, where Andrew has lived for 25 years, where our boys were born, where 16 percent of us are Asian and anti-Asian hate is up 900 percent.”
The AAPI Victory Alliance, an alliance of Asian-American and Pacific Islanders, called the comic “disgusting and wrong.”
“Every single day Asian-Americans have to fight the notion that we are foreigners. We are here and we’re not going anywhere,” the alliance posted on Twitter.
This is not just a simple caricature or a case of political satire, but contains clear discrimination, Shen Yi, a professor at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs of Fudan University, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
“Yang and other New York Asians have unrealistic illusions about the local elite. They may think such discrimination will not be explicitly hyped in the election. But in fact, discrimination against Asians is never far away,” Shen said.
Shen pointed out that this incident also occurred because Yang, a former presidential candidate, is among the leading candidates in the Democratic primary for the city’s mayor.
“It is likely that other political elites do not want to see him in power and are deliberately stirring up populist sentiment at this time.”
No Asian-American has ever held such a central position in American politics as mayor of a metropolitan city, Shen said.
The better Yang’s electoral performance, the more blatantly they will carry out such tricks, Shen said. “The current American mainstream media is surprisingly silent on this comic, which also indicates a tacit approval.”
New York City Mayoral candidate Andrew Yang speaks at a rally at City Hall Park in Manhattan on May 24, 2021 in New York City. Photo: AFP
