The Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) issued the following statement on Aug. 7, and I believe the short statement is certainly worth your time.
I have written about microagression racism before and the JACL describes both overt and microagression racism in its statement.
Like hundreds of others who are Asian American or are have strong ties to the Asian American community, I have written about self-proclaimed feminist Kathy Groob who tweeted that Senator Mitch McConnell’s wife Elaine Chao (former U.S. Secretary of Labor and Director of the Peace Corps) essentially could not be a Kentucky citizen because she’s Asian. Her logic would make my Asian American teenage daughter and Kentucky citizen non-existent, with her ridiculous rationale that having Asian ancestry and being a Kentucky citizen are mutually exclusive.
Again, I am a political moderate, clinging to my belief that neither party actually represents any position, other than that which would result in the election of their candidates.
With that disclaimer, I am linking to an article by a guest commentator, obviously a Republican, who nonetheless makes some valid points and asks some difficult questions which the Democratic Party has failed to answer.
Former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao
Kathy Groob, Self-Proclaimed Feminist (exceptin Asian American Women)
When will America stop with the prejudice and stereotyping?
This is an update to an earlier post on Liberal Feminist Kathy Groob’s racist tweets against Elaine Chao, the first Asian American female to serve on a U.S. President’s cabinet in American history. Former Secretary Chao has also served as director of the Peace Corps and president and CEO of United Way. Had Former Secretary Chao not looked “foreign” [translated–“didn’t look like an American should look”], Ms. Groob, as a self- designated Feminist would be shouting from the rooftops Ms. Chao’s many noteworty accomplishments.
Make no mistake, I am a political moderate who believes ALL American citizens deserve the same rights regardless of their physical ethnic or racial characteristics. Increasingly, I find myself both disappointed in and more alienated from both the Republican and Democratic parties.
Also make no mistake, I think Kathy Groob’s IQ (intellectual, social or otherwise) has risen into the double figure range by not only deleting her racist tweets (one of which is included below), but acting on the advice (of someone of at least slightly-below normal intelligence) to cancel her Twitter account (because given the ignorant, most racist tweets I have ever read, she clearly is without the mental acuity to realize that armed with a social media account, she was essentially a super-sized Jim Crow incapable of spewing anything other than ethnic and racial hatred with each stroke of her keyboard.
I have seen firsthand the collateral damage, up close and in person, (as the father of an Asian American daughter and Kentucky citizen–like Elaine Chao), the dehumanizing effect Ms. Groob’s vitriol has on people (like my daughter) “who do not” look American (whatever an American is supposed to look like). This suject is of such great interest to me because:
The following is a link to an aticle summarizing the Kathy Groob “incident” from beginnimg to end:
The last link is to a wonderful piece appearing in the Washington Times, describing the harm Kathy Groob has done with her racist tweets.
Quote from Deborah Simmons’ excellent article:
‘. . . because [Kathy Groob] is desperate to prove a point. Ms. Groob might have well said, “Don’t elect McConnell because his wife is not one of us.”
Sometimes folks are afraid, especially self-designated, dyed-in-the-wool political operatives who have branded themselves as specialists in bolstering women in politics.
What does she see down the road?
A post-racial candidate?”
Kathy Groob: Your tweet insinuates my Asia American daughter, with her Kentucky citizenship, does not exist!
According to Feminist Kathy Groob, Elaine Chao will never be considered a”real American” because she has Asian features. This “national” attitude does dot bode well for my daughter’s future in America–if she chooses to remain here.
At least former NBA Commissioner David Stern attributed Jeremy Lin’s mistreatment and lack of playing time resulted rom discrimination.
RIP Kathy Groob’s racist and jingoistic Twitter account
Kathy Groob got into a Twitter war arguing that Elaine Chao, the former labor secretary and wife of Republican US Senator Mitch McConnell, can’t possibly be from Kentucky, “because she’s Asian.”
That drew a firestorm on Twitter from folks who didn’t see the relationship between being from Kentucky and being Asian. One of Ms Groob’s many Anti-Kentucky and Anti-Asian American racist tweets (all of which she later deleted from her account), appears below.
In order to present an accurate portayal, I am including links to articles posted on a Kentucky television station (WHAS), an extremely conservative blog (fireandreamitchell.com) and an Asian American blog (AsAm News) to let you determine the appropriateness of Ms. Groob’s comments regarding Asian Americans and Kentucky (1) Kentucky has no Asians, and (2) Ms. Goob continues to openly express the widely held belief, despite her very liberal views, that Asian Americans, regardless of how many generations their ancestors have been American citizens “are really never fully American.”
I realize, of course, that politics often descend into the absurd and that Ms. Goob made her racist attacks because she disapproves of U.S. Senator Mitch McConnel (R, KY) (who is married to Asian American Elaine Chao–a citizen of both Kentucky and the United States) and I realize she did make an “apology” (though her “apology” was perhaps the weakest and least effective apology in modern political history). Ms. Goob’s comments, however, fall outside any sense of human decency, and continue to depict Asian Americans, depite their legal citizenship, as forever foreign and unwanted in their country of citizenship. Make no mistake, there is no doubt, whatsover, that Ms. Goob was well aware of Ms. Chao’s citizenship (in both Kentucky and the U.S.). If she is as involved in politics and feminism on the national scene as she claims, she would certainly know that Elaine Chao was the first Asian American women to be appointed to a U.S. President’s cabinet in American history, serving as the United States Secretary of Labor from 2001 to 2009. If Ms. Chao did not possess Asian features, I can only assume she would have been thumping her chest that a female served as Secretary of Labor (a Cabinet level position) for two full terms under a Republican President–but how could she celebrate a woman in such a high level position because thw woman “did not look like an American citizen, but looked instead like a massage parlor worker whom the poor, ignorant hillbillies populating Kentucky (including me, though I have an LL.M. degree from George Washington University and even have an “Asian” daughter) would surely not allow to live in their state. I guess I should receive my notice any day to report to an interment camp with my daughter).
Since Ms. Goob has announced to the world through social media that Ms. Chao can’t possibly live in Kentucky because of her Asian features, I guess, based on her logic, my 15 year-old Asian American daughter isn’t from Kentucky either since she was adopted from the Central Asian Republic of Kazakhstan and has lived with and been a part of our Kentucky family since she was 18 months old. The good liberal, Ms. Groob, has helped perpetuate the myth that Americans with Asian features are somehow strange and different and will never be accepted as true Americans in the United States. Perhaps her point of view (which many claim is wholely within the domain of Conservative politics, though Ms. Groob has proven otherwise) is the reason that Asian teens are the most bullied racial group in the U.S. and also have the highest suicide rate.
I care very deeply about this subject of Asians being viewed and treated differently because the issue directly affects my ethnic Kaazakh daughter (both an Asian and Kentucky citizen, though in Ms. Groob’s world the two categories cannot co-exist). I also care because my Asian Kentucky citizen daughter was bullied (racially harassed and retaliated against) at her previous school based on her ethnicity, national origin, race and religion) while the school system at every level displayed an incredible deliberate indifference with regard to my many comlaints of her mistreatment. When people like Ms. Kroob spew their hatred on a national stage, there is a trickle down effect reminding all of white America that American citizens with Asian features are “not really” Americans and there is no need to allow them the same courtesy and conditions to which white people feel priviliged.
http://www.asamnews.com/2014/08/04/whas-democratic-operatives-tweet-about-elaine-chao-draws-rebuke/
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