NEW YORK — A recent Daily News cartoon depicting New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang sparked so much backlash the newspaper changed the image.
But some say the damage was already done.
Betty Ng, the founder of Inspiring Diversity, an organization working to promote inclusion in business, spoke with the PIX11 Morning New about why the cartoon caused such an outrage and why this is a “teachable moment.”
Yang responded Tuesday, calling the cartoon racist and the drawing a “racialized caricature.”
The mayoral candidate said, “To paint me in the media as a perpetual foreigner to this city is wrong and subtly approves racism at a time when people are being beaten on the street on the basis of who they are.”
Ng said that even if cartoonist Bill Bramhall did not intend the offense or does not believe that Asians are foreigners or outsiders, his actions can inadvertently help perpetuate those type of stereotypes and biases.
“This is very much a teachable moment,” Ng said. “We may think one way…but we really need to be mindful of our actions.”
Yang will be among seven mayoral candidates participating in PIX11’s mayoral forum Thursday at 8 p.m.
