By Brian Brant
(NEW YORK) The wife of New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang criticized a New York Daily News’ cartoon showing her husband as a tourist, calling it a “racist disfiguration.”
Politico reports the cartoon depicts Yang leaving the Times Square subway stop next to a tourist shop, with a shop owner remarking that "the tourists are back!"
“I can’t believe my eyes,” Evelyn Yang said in a tweet on Monday. “To publish this racist disfiguration of @AndrewYang as a tourist, in NYC where I was born, where Andrew has lived for 25 years, where our boys were born, where 16% of us are Asian and anti-Asian hate is up 900%.”
Yang, who is a frontrunner to become New York City's first Asian mayor, was mocked after saying his favorite subway stop was Times Square, which he said was the station closest to his home.
The Daily News’ editorial board ripped Yang Sunday, saying he “doesn’t know enough to lead” the city.
Progressive Asian American and Pacific Islander advocacy group API Victory Alliance joined Yang in condemning the cartoon on Monday calling it “disgusting and wrong.”
The cartoon comes as advocacy group Stop AAPI Hate reports anti-Asian hate crime incidents across the U.S. have spiked from about 100 annually to almost 3,800.