RICHMOND — Democrats called on Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin to apologize on Wednesday for using the word "yellow" to describe Asians as he promised to unite Virginians of all stripes.
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"I so look forward to being governor and actually working hard to unleash the potential of all Virginians .？.？. so that all Virginians — Black Virginians, Brown Virginians, White Virginians, yellow Virginians — can all achieve their aspirations and their ambitions," Youngkin, who is White, said in an April podcast that recently resurfaced. "And this is what America is about. And this is what Virginia should be about."
The Democratic Party of Virginia demanded that he “apologize for using this slur.” State Del. Kathy Tran (D-Fairfax), who is Vietnamese American, tweeted that his wording was “offensive & dangerous.”
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The Republican Party of Virginia quickly countered with a video showing prominent liberals — actress Whoopi Goldberg, Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Georgetown sociology professor Michael Eric Dyson, Harvard professor Cornel West and civil rights activist Al Sharpton — using -“yellow” and in some cases “red” in the same context.
Youngkin spokeswoman Macaulay Porter called the criticism “hypocrisy and bad faith at their finest.”
“Glenn Youngkin will always seek to uplift and empower Virginians of every color,” she said. “None of these Democrats had a problem with this same language being used at their own Democrat National Convention last year, or being used by elected officials in their own party.”
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A spokesman for former governor Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic nominee, declined to comment.
Youngkin made the remark in an interview on Republican strategist Chris Arps’s “Water Cooler Politics” podcast. His choice of words did not draw attention at the time.
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“Yellow” has been used as a slur to describe Asians and Pacific Islanders, but it also turns up in the rhetoric of those advocating for a multicultural society.
It was not clear why the interview resurfaced Wednesday on the liberal news site the American Independent, but Democratic operatives have been scouring all of Youngkin’s public statements since he secured the GOP nomination, just as Republicans have put McAuliffe under a microscope.
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Del. Mark Keam (D-Fairfax), the first Korean immigrant elected to Virginia’s legislature, said the use of the word reflected poorly on Youngkin.
“It’s clear to me that Mr. Youngkin has spent very little time with people from our community, and based on his lack of understanding of the sensitivities, it’s also clear to me that he doesn’t have an interest in getting to know our community beyond using cheap slogans,” Keam said.
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Youngkin spent three years at the helm of The Carlyle Group as co-chief executive alongside Kewsong Lee, an American of Korean descent, and did substantial business in China.
Sookyung Oh, Virginia director of the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium Action Fund said that Youngkin’s choice of words struck her as “tone deaf” but she also said that “the sentiment’s lovely.”
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Her beef was with what she perceived as an empty shout-out.
“You want diversity and inclusions? What do you think about expanding health care to all undocumented Virginians?” she asked, rhetorically.
Harold Pyon, a Korean immigrant and Republican challenging Del. Dan Helmer (D-Fairfax) in November, defended Youngkin, tweeting: “I know Glenn Youngkin. I support Glenn Youngkin. I know beyond a doubt that Glenn supports our AAPI community.”