Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include a statement addressing the New York Daily News cartoon.
Evelyn Yang, the wife of New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang, recently condemned a “racist” New York Daily News cartoon of her husband.
What happened: The cartoon was first shared on Twitter by Bill Bramhall, the editorial cartoonist for the Daily News, reported the New York Post.
- In the drawing posted on Monday, Yang is depicted as a tourist in Times Square, and a souvenir shopkeeper who notices him says, “The tourists are back!”
- This cartoon was reportedly created after Yang declared that Times Square is his favorite subway stop, according to USA Today.
- Yang has slanted eyes in the first version of the cartoon. In the new version, which was published by the New York Daily News on Tuesday, his eyes are enlarged.
I can’t believe my eyes. To publish this racist disfiguration of @AndrewYang as a tourist, in NYC where I was born, where Andrew has lived for 25 years, where our boys were born, where 16% of us are Asian and anti-Asian hate is up 900%. #StopAsianHate https://t.co/pJ7JqxCUec
— Evelyn Yang (@EvelynYang) May 24, 2021
Fighting back: Yang’s wife Evelyn took to Twitter on Monday to address the cartoon, claiming it to be a “racist disfiguration” of her husband.
- During a Tuesday press conference with her husband in Queens, she said that the drawing “perpetuates the trope of the Asian foreigner.”
- Her husband also addressed the cartoon and mentioned the Monday morning incident involving an Asian American man who was thrown onto train tracks in Queens.
- “Words matter, art matters, representation matters — so let’s be better than this,” Yang’s wife declared.
Addressing the recent subway attack and anti-Asian cartoon in the Daily News https://t.co/S4kWl5J3EE
— Andrew Yang🧢🗽🇺🇸 (@AndrewYang) May 25, 2021
Yang has since put out a statement addressing the “racialized caricature.”
My thoughts on the racist cartoon of me published by the Daily News. pic.twitter.com/Z9F9O2bNXP
— Andrew Yang🧢🗽🇺🇸 (@AndrewYang) May 25, 2021
NextShark has reached out to Bramhall for further comment.
Featured Image via Andrew Yang
