New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang is accusing the New York Daily News of racism over a cartoon Monday depicting him as a tourist arriving in the city on the subway.
Yang’s wife, Evelyn, tweeted the image, together with an offensive stereotype of an Asian visitor, and a complaint about depicting Yang as an outsider after decades in the city.
The Daily News reported Tuesday:
A mayoral candidate who failed to vote in several local elections, decamped to upstate New York during the height of the COVID pandemic, and who recently named the Times Square subway station his favorite among all underground New York City stops — called a press conference Tuesday to complain about a satirical Daily News cartoon depicting him as a tourist.
Andrew Yang, a former entrepreneur who ran as a Democratic presidential contender in 2020, is no longer leading the pack in most recent polls of the New York City mayor’s race. Most show him trailing behind Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams.
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Hazel Dukes, president of the NAACP’s New York State Conference, said it appeared clear the cartoon was referring to Yang’s “knowledge of the city,” or lack thereof.
“He didn’t do his homework — maybe that’s what they’re talking about — not as an Asian-American. He has not been able to answer some very pertinent questions about life in the city of New York,” said the civil rights leader who was born in Depression-era Alabama. “They’re talking about his knowledge of the city. I would not say we should label that as racism.”
The primary for both Democratic and Republican candidates is June 22; the general election will be held November 2.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new novel, Joubert Park, tells the story of a Jewish family in South Africa at the dawn of the apartheid era. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, recounts the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.