A panel of 60 prominent members of the AAPI and local community gathered in New York’s Chinatown on Sunday to discuss the impact of a Fox News segment that portrayed Asian Americans in a stereotypical fashion.
The #SpeakOutAAPI panel invited Fox News to their discussion, but no one showed up. It commenced with an empty seat marked “Fox News.”
The segment in question aired last week and featured ambush interviewer Jesse Watters going around Chinatown to question Asian American voters about their thoughts on November’s upcoming presidential election as a part of an Oct. 3 showing of “The O’Reilly Factor.” It was met with strong criticism by the AAPI community for being offensive and racist.
Many members of the panel – which was co-sponsored by the Asian American Journalists Association and held at the Museum of Chinese in America in New York – found the skit to be outrageous and counterproductive.
Among those in attendance were New York Assemblymen Ron Kim and Walter T. Mosley.
“[The segment] invokes so many stereotypes against Chinese Americans and Asian Americans,” said Jenn Fang, founder of a political website and member of the panel. “It was completely unilluminating as a journalistic piece.”
Nancy Yao Maasbach, president of the Museum of Chinese in America, said the discussion became a catalyst for change in the way we think about immigrants in the United States. “I think too often, we try to bucket a group of people,” Maasbach told Pix 11. “Maybe because we are lazy in terms of understanding what is the journey of these people and what makes our country great.”
Watters took to Twitter on Oct. 5 to issue an explanation for his actions.
“As a political humorist, the Chinatown segment was intended to be a light piece, as all ‘Watters World’ segments are,” he wrote. “My man-on-the-street interviews are meant to be taken as tongue-in-cheek and I regret if anyone found offense.”
Bill O’Reilly also took to the airwaves to defend himself on Fox News Sunday. “I would have edited a little differently then it was edited, but no, it wasn’t over the line,” O’Reilly said.
