Andrew Yang: No apologies for the Asian jokes

By Christopher Cadelago

Andrew Yang says he isn’t going to stop making Asian jokes. In fact, the entrepreneur-presidential candidate added another one in an interview Wednesday with POLITICO.

Asked whether the Democratic National Committee’s debate-qualifying thresholds had altered his campaign’s strategic approach, Yang initially stopped himself. “I was about to tell an Asian joke,” he conceded to some laughter, including his own, before leaning in.

“I’m Asian, so I love tests,” he continued, adding that the DNC’s rules have been “incredibly helpful” to him because he knows how many donors — and what polling numbers — he needs to aim for.

Yang, a political novice who is centering his campaign on the government’s providing all adults with $1,000 a month, has flouted conventional wisdom and seemingly every expectation about his outsider run, which has seen him overtake more than a dozen established politicians in polls.

But during his unlikely rise, Yang has taken heat for playing up Asian stereotypes — from all the physicians he’s personally familiar with (“Now, I am Asian, so I know a lot of doctors,” he said at the last debate), to his affinity for mathematics (“The opposite of Donald Trump is an Asian man who likes math,” he likes to say in closing his speeches).

Some supporters have said they see the jokes as self-deprecating and appropriate “in-group” humor because Yang is Asian American. Yet, the quips aren’t landing with critics who say they help perpetuate labels they’ve spent years working to eliminate.

Yang said on Wednesday he isn’t surprised by the disagreement. And he stressed he isn’t going to hold back.

“We’re a very diverse community, and if Asian Americans disagree with my response to a particular issue, or a joke I tell, that’s something I would expect and accept,” he told POLITICO.

“I don’t see any reason to dramatically change anything I’ve been doing to date,” Yang added. “And I think that the vast majority of the Asian Americans I encounter seem very excited about my campaign.”