American comedian and latenight show host Jay Leno apologizes for the jokes he made for years about Americans from Asian backgrounds.
He does so in a joint statement with an action group that ensures that Asian Americans are treated fairly in the media.
“In all the years I’ve been making these jokes, I really thought they didn’t do any harm,” Leno says on the website of Variety. “When a complaint came in, there were two options. Either we said: ‘We have to do something with this’, or we said: ‘They’ll look at it if they can’t stand a joke’. Too often I chose the latter, even if deep down I knew I was wrong. That’s why I apologize. “
Leno says the activist group has “graciously” accepted his apologies. He hopes the Asian-American community will do the same.
Racism
Racism against Asian Americans is in the spotlight because of the attack on three last week massage salons in Atlanta, which cost the lives of eight people. Most of them were women of Asian background.
The shooter said after his arrest that he was no racist motive but Asian-Americans point to research showing that they have been increasingly victims of violence in the past year.
President Biden said on a visit to Atlanta that Asian Americans have been attacked and reviled especially since the outbreak of the corona pandemic. Some people see them as the cause of the outbreak of the virus, which first showed up in China. “We must work together to combat this hatred,” said Biden.
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