As city conferences go, the dialogue was pretty routine, meandering from what Memorial Day celebrations may appear to be within the second 12 months of the coronavirus pandemic, to a federal grant software for bulletproof vests for law enforcement officials.
But when the time got here for the trustees in West Chester Township, Ohio, to ship private remarks on the group’s most up-to-date assembly, the board’s chairman, Lee Wong, who’s Asian-American, did one thing uncommon.
Mr. Wong eliminated his go well with jacket and his tie and unbuttoned his gown shirt, based on a video of the board’s March 23 meeting, which has since drawn widespread consideration. Then, he lifted his undershirt, revealing scars on his chest that he stated he obtained whereas serving within the U.S. Army.
Mr. Wong, 69, stated he might now not endure the indignities of prejudice in opposition to Asian-Americans or having folks query his loyalties to America.
“Here is my proof,” he stated. “Now is this patriot enough? I’m not ashamed to walk around anymore. Before I was inhibited. People looked at me strange.”
It was the board’s first assembly since March 16, when a gunman killed six women of Asian descent in a sequence of assaults on therapeutic massage companies within the Atlanta space, leaving eight folks useless.
Prosecutors are weighing whether or not to categorise the shootings as a hate crime, however the rampage got here amid an increase in violent crimes concentrating on folks of Asian descent throughout the United States, which advocates say has been exacerbated by pandemic-related racism.
Mr. Wong immigrated to the United States from the island of Borneo in 1971, based on a profile about him in The Cincinnati Enquirer final 12 months when he ran unsuccessfully for the State Senate.
He is a Republican, although the township board is a nonpartisan physique, The Enquirer reported. He was first elected to the board in West Chester Township, a northern suburb of Cincinnati, in 2005.
About midway via the board’s assembly, Mr. Wong stated he would depart from protocol and had one thing that he wished to share.
He stated he got here to the United States when he was 18 and as soon as had been assaulted in a racially motivated assault in Chicago. For too lengthy, Mr. Wong stated, he had put up with racism however had been too afraid to talk out as a result of he feared dealing with extra discrimination and abuse.
“In the last few years, things are just getting worse and worse,” he stated. “There are some ignorant people that will come up to me and say that I don’t look American or patriotic enough. Now, that really gets my goat.”
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He stated that Asian-Americans had been subjected to widespread prejudice, notably restaurant employees.
“They are hard-working Americans,” he stated. “Some even served in the U.S. armed forces — not Chinese army. U.S. Army.”
Noting that he had been a U.S. citizen for fairly a while, Mr. Wong stated that he had served within the U.S. Army for 20 years. He obtained the scars whereas serving at Fort Jackson in South Carolina, The Journal-News of Hamilton, Ohio, reported.
Efforts to achieve Mr. Wong on Sunday weren’t instantly profitable, however he told CNN that he obtained the scars after present process a number of surgical procedures for cuts that obtained contaminated throughout fight coaching.
“People question my patriotism, that I don’t look American enough,” Mr. Wong stated on the assembly. “They cannot get over this face.”
Mr. Wong stated the nation had important work to do to handle bigotry.
“You know prejudice is hate,” he stated. “We need to be kinder, gentler to one another, because we are all the same. We are one human being on this earth.”
