New York mayor candidate who swallowed tears during speech condemning racial crime

The House of Justice in Harlem, upstate Manhattan, New York on the 18th (local time).

Tracking Tracking Despite the rainy weather, influential black leaders and candidates for the New York market flocked to this area, a densely populated area of ​​black people.

Representatives from Asian organizations, including New York Korean President Charles Yun and Wayne Ho, Chairman of the Chinese-American Planning Committee (CAP), gathered together.

The reason they gathered is to condemn the case where eight people, including four Korean women, were killed in a series of shootings in Atlanta, Georgia, USA on the 16th.

Reverend Al Schaffton, a major contingent of black human rights activists, held an emergency press conference here today and urged to stop hate attacks against Asians. The event was planned a day ago, but all eight candidates for the mayor of New York came out.

As the theme of the press conference was the subject, Andrew Yang, the only Asian candidate, was definitely in the spotlight.

He is the second generation of Taiwanese immigrants, born and raised in 1975 in a small town called Schenectady near Albany, the state capital of New York. Not only in the 1970s, but even today, it is an area where you can hardly see Asian descent.

As soon as Yang started his speech, his emotions were suddenly full of emotions. This was especially the case when I was reminiscent of my childhood.

“When I was younger, I had an invisible feeling that I couldn’t be an American if I had an Asian appearance,” he said. “This problem is being transferred to something new, fatal and disgusting,” he said.

“It’s a bitter and traumatic time for the Asian American community,” he said. Those who attended as candidates for the mayor of New York on this day were diverse, including blacks and whites, but both candidates shared their personal experiences of racial discrimination.

“They don’t see the victim as a person,” he said after listing recent cases. He also said, “We have to classify these as hate crimes,” and said, “We need to fully support the budget to the Asian Hate Crimes Task Force.”

The reporter asked Yang about the Atlanta case again, leaving the conference hall. Until then, both candidates’ eyes looked moist.

“It’s terrible. Asian Americans are having a hard time,” Yang said several times, saying, “We have to work together.”

He held a press conference at Times Square in New York on the 17th, and desperately appealed to how he was bullied as a child of Asian origin.

“I grew up in New York as an Asian-American and had adapted to some degree of racist bullying,” said Yang.

“Anti-Asian racism is getting worse in New York,” he expressed concern. He is said to have dreamed of hope by seeing a dog, not a human, to restore his self-esteem as a child.

The word that the New York mayoral candidates who attended the event consistently emphasized was’solidarity’.

In particular, it is noteworthy that the black society took the lead and tried to share the pain enough to hold such an event.

“After the death of George Floyd last year, the Korean Association has approached the black community by delivering masks and grants,” said New York Korean President Charles Yoon. .

In the wake of the Atlanta shootings, a movement to condemn racial discrimination is spreading across the United States. The victims of hate crimes in Asia are increasing rapidly, and even the black society is swaying.

The death of George Floyd last year caused by police overrepression triggered the Black Lives Matter movement. The Georgian tragedy has become a catalyst for the movement of “Asian Lives Matter”.

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