The far-left website Vox has accused Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang of reinforcing “toxic tropes” about Asian-Americans, Fox News has reported.
In the piece, Vox writer Li Zhou claimed, without evidence, that “voters are concerned” about Yang’s jokes, which she says “reinforce longstanding racist stereotypes about Asian Americans and other minority groups.”
The jokes she highlighted included Yang’s statement that, as an Asian, he “knows a lot of doctors,” as well as his campaign slogan “Make America Think Again” having the acronym of “MATH.” She further expanded by claiming that Yang’s jokes “help reaffirm a trope about Asian Americans commonly known as the ‘model minority’ myth.”
Zhou quickly faced ridicule on social media for the article, with some pointing out that the “stereotypes” in question simply portray Asians as “smart and hardworking,” while others said that she simply had no sense of humor.
The far-left criticism of Yang reveals the ideological and rhetorical divides within the Democratic Party going into 2020. The incident is also similar to recent statements given by another Democratic presidential candidate, Marianne Williamson, who recently responded to left-wing criticism of her by commenting that she “didn’t think the Left was so mean. I didn’t think the Left lied like this.”