Tag: Racism

Racist Anti-Asian Campaign Mailers Sent to New Jersey Residents

An uncredited campaign mailer sent to residents of Edison, New Jersey this week. (Photo credit: NJ.com)

An unknown number of Edison, New Jersey residents received a racist, anti-Asian campaign mailer in the post earlier this week attacking local school board candidates Falguni Patel and incumbent Jerry Shi. The mailer proclaims that we should “Make Edison Great Again” and that “the Chinese and Indians are taking over our town!”

“Chinese school! Indian school! Cricket fields! Enough is Enough!!” reads the text of the postcard, which also includes images of Patel and Shi above “Deport” graphics.

The back of the mailer lists several anti-Asian stereotypes — including the Perpetual Foreigner stereotype — with the text: “Stop the overcrowding! Stop taking over our sports fields! Stop the McMansions! Stop the multiple families living in the same house! Stop wasting school holidays! Stop the outsiders! Let’s take back our Edison & our schools!”

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Teens Spray Anti-Asian Slurs in Vandalism Attack on NYC Cemetery

Three unidentified teenagers are caught on surveillance footage at the Cypress Hill Cemetery in NYC moments before a vandalism attack. (Photo credit: NYPD / YouTube)

Three unidentified teenagers were caught on surveillance camera this past week vandalizing headstones in a predominantly Asian and Asian American section of the Cypress Hill Cemetery, a 225-acre cemetery in Queens and Brooklyn, reports DNAinfo.

The teens spray-painted anti-Asian and Islamophobic slurs — including the phrases “ching chong” and “fuck Jackie Chan” — and approximately 70 headstones were knocked down and 15 mausoleum memorial plaques destroyed in the attack. According to DNAinfo, the cemetery houses several notable graves, including that of NYPD officer Wenjian Liu, who was killed in his patrol car along with his partner in 2014 in an apparently targeted attack against the NYPD.

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Katy Perry (Sorta) Addresses Cultural Appropriation Critiques

DeRay McKesson (left) and Katy Perry (right) recording an episode of McKesson’s podcast. (Photo credit: Katy Perry livestream / screen grab from YouTube video posted by Kiwi in Munich)

In the latest episode of DeRay McKesson’s podcast, “Pod Save the People” (Episode 8:  “When You Have to Face Yourself”), McKesson interviews singer Katy Perry. During the conversation, Perry and McKesson discuss many topics, including the subject of cultural appropriation.

Perry has been heavily criticized — including by this blog — for multiple incidents of racial insensitivity and cultural appropriation, including at the 2013 AMA Music Awards when Perry dressed as a geisha in an Orientalist staging of her song “Unconditionally” (video after the jump). Perry was also accused of racism and appropriating black hair for her music video, “This Is How We Do“, wherein the singer was shown wearing cornrows and eating watermelon.

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BREAKING: O’Reilly Factor’s Executive Producer Will Meet with Asian American Community over Racist Segment

Jesse Watters interviews people in NYC's Chinatown during a segment that aired on October 3, 2016. (Photo credit: Fox News)
Jesse Watters interviews people in NYC’s Chinatown during a segment that aired on October 3, 2016. (Photo credit: Fox News)

The Asian American Journalists’ Association just broke the news that The O’Reilly Factor‘s Executive Producer David Tabacoff has agreed to a sit-down meeting with AAJA and other representatives of the Asian American community at the NYC Chinatown’s Museum of Chinese in America.

After the jump is AAJA’s full statement.

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Bill O’Reilly: Racist ‘Watters’ World’ Segment “Wasn’t Over The Line”

Bill O'Reilly defends a 'Watters' World' segment widely denounced as racist on the October 9, 2016 episode of Fox News Sunday. (Photo Credit: Fox News via video posted by Media Matters)
Bill O’Reilly defends a ‘Watters’ World’ segment widely denounced as racist on the October 9, 2016 episode of Fox News Sunday. (Photo Credit: Fox News via video posted by Media Matters)

On October 9, 2016’s episode of Fox News Sunday, Bill O’Reilly was asked about a ‘Watters’World’ segment aired on O’Reilly Factor on October 3, 2016 that has been widely denounced as racist towards the Asian American community. Unsurprisingly, O’Reilly defended the segment and its creator, Fox News correspondent Jesse Watters, saying that the segment “wasn’t over the line.”

After airing a brief excerpt from the ‘Watters’ World’ segment, Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace asked O’Reilly for his comment on criticisms of racism. What follows is Media Matters’ video and transcript of the exchange.

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