Sunday Read: Andrew Yang told, "Go back to China"

• Talk show host uses racial slur against candidate
• Yang embraces his 'Asian-ness'
• Businessman battles media bias for recognition

YANG CAMPAIGN

Andrew Yang's campaign is gaining financial momentum and followers.

It was bound to happen sooner or later. Democratic Presidential candidate Andrew Yang was told to"Go back to China." What's surprising is that he isn't met with racial slurs more often.

Right wing pastor and radio host Jesse Lee Peterson declared on his show that “there’s this little Asian guy or Chinese guy, whatever he is, he should go back to China, or where ever he came from, Andrew Yang.”

The right-wing radio host who calls Donald Trump "the Great White Hope," made his remarks while blasting Yang’s universal basic income plan which would give every American $1,000 monthly.

“You allow these people to come into our country and they come in with this socialist, communist ideas.”

Yang, born in Schenectady, New York is the son of Taiwanese immigrants.

According to Newsweek, Peterson has targeted Yang before. He mocked the presidential candidate after he cried during the discussion of gun violence and the death of a four-year-old boy.

“Poor baby, I think that’s a stunt. I don’t think that’s real,” he said.

The Southern Poverty Law Center says Peterson once thanked God for slavery.

People for the American Way, a liberal advocacy group, discovered the clip and posted it as part of its Right Wing Watch project. You can see the one minute clip in its entirety below.


Yang, whose unexpected staying power, is breaking new ground for Asian America, has embraced his ethnicity during his campaign. Often, he describes himself as the "Asian guy who loves MATH" (Make America Think Harder).

The big surprise is that Yang hasn't encountered more xenophobic attacks. 

Perhaps Yang's biggest hurdle, thus far, is getting mainstream media to take him seriously.

Yang's "Freedom Dividend," a proposal to give every adult in the US $1000 a month, is the cornerstone of his campaign, which is starting to gain momentum from his appearances in the first two Democratic debates. At first, mainstream media tended to treat Yang as a kook, but when the candidate is given a chance to explain his idea of a Universal Basic Income, the less far-fetched it becomes.

Some networks sometimes omit him in their graphics showing the candidates' positions in the polls even though Yang is outperforming media favorites, former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, both of whom get more articles written about them.

CNN, NBC and MSNBC have omitted  and apologized for not inccluding Yang's name when listing candidates taking part in the September debate.

NBC GRAPHIC

NBC apologized for omitting Andrew Yang when listing candidates who qualified for he September debate.

In fact, with 3% in the most recent polls, Yang is in the No. 6 spot, ahead of seasoned politicians Booker, O'Rourke, Amy Klobuchar, Julian Castro and tech billionaire Tom Steyer.

Despite what looks like bias on the part of the media, Yang continues to gain support though his outsider campaign is still considered a long shot.

Asian Americans haven't exactly rushed to Yang's support.

But Shekar Narasimhan — the chair of the AAPI Victory Fund, a super PAC focused on Asian American and Pacific Islander voters — told NBC it is still early to give an endorsement.

“Just because he is AAPI does not mean that our community will automatically donate to him or support him or vote for him. They have to see how he performs at the debate and to see if he’s going to show up to our event,” Narasimhan said, referring to a presidential forum the super PAC is holding today in California.

Yang, in fact, is one of four Democratic candidates who have committed to showing up at Costa Mesa forum. Also taking part will by Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Marianne Williamson and Tom Steyer. Most notably, Kamala Harris, whose poll numbers have been slipping in recent weeks, is not scheduled to attend

“I spend a lot of time in Iowa and New Hampshire, and I really haven’t experienced a lot of racism or discrimination,” he told HuffPost. “The people there care a lot more about the ideas I’m promoting that will help them, their families and their communities than they do about what race I happen to be.”

That’s not to say he has avoided his heritage. Yang, the son of Taiwanese immigrants, grew up in Schenectady, New York, as one of the few Asian Americans in his class — and his classmates “frequently reminded me of this,” he told Huffington Post in his characteristic deadpan delivery.  When he answers questions in his rapid-fire manner, trying to get in as much content in a limited time frame, people often miss the slightest of smiles (or is that a smirk?)  indicating irony.

“It was definitely a struggle to find my own identity as a first-generation Asian-American without a lot of representation in my neighborhood, or prominently in the public sphere,” he said in the Huffington Post interview.

Yang added: “I think that’s what gave me a drive to relate to and help the underdog.”

“The reaction from Asian Americans on the campaign trail has been very positive, I’m happy to say,” he told HuffPost. “They’re very willing to give me a platform to promote my ideas, and they’re excited to see a role model for their children that shares their Asian heritage.”

Race and white supremacy has been a central part of Donald Trump's campaign. When he told four POC Congresswomen to go back where they came from, he made it clear that he wanted to paint the entire Democratic Party under the banner of "others." and further divide the country by fear and race.


Both Gabbard and Harris, the other two candidates who have AAPI heritage, are of mixed race and -- rightly or wrongly -- are often questioned about their racial origins. For Yang, born of Taiwanese immigrant parents, there is no such doubt about his "Asian-ness."

“My Asian-ness is kind of obvious in a way that might not be true of Kamala or even Tulsi,” Yang responded to a New York Times question during a campaign sweep through New Hampshire. “That’s not a choice. It’s just a fairly evident reality.”

In the same interview, he said, “And I will admit that there are many Asian Americans who are looking at me and my candidacy and want to make sure I reflect positively on the community, so I’m very aware.”

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