Representative Bettie Scott of Detroit has since apologized for remarks she made in the Democrat primary elections against her opponent, Representative Stephanie Chang. Among the comments made were “You don’t belong here,” “I want you out of my country,” and to her voters, “Don’t vote for the ching chong”:
More than a dozen community groups have called on Rep. Bettie Cook Scott (D-Detroit) to apologize for a series of racial slurs sources say she used to describe her primary election opponent, Rep. Stephanie Chang (D-Detroit).
Scott is alleged to have referred to Chang as “ching-chang” and “the ching-chong” to multiple voters outside polling precincts during last Tuesday’s election. She’s also said to have called one of Chang’s campaign volunteers an “immigrant,” saying “you don’t belong here” and “I want you out of my country.”
Chang and Scott were running in the Democratic primary for state Sen. District 1. Chang won the election with 49 percent of the vote; Scott came in third with 11 percent of the vote.
“These comments are offensive to all Asian-Americans,” Chang tells Metro Times. “It isn’t about me. It’s about an elected official disrespecting entire populations, whether they be Asian-American, immigrant, or residents of Sen. District 1 or [Cook’s] own current house district.”
The various off-color remarks were heard by multiple people connected with Chang, including Chang’s husband, who spoke with Metro Times. Sean Gray says after overhearing Cook disparage Chang outside a precinct on the east side of Detroit, “I … asked her not to speak about my wife in that manner. At that time she said to the voter that ‘these immigrants from China are coming over and taking our community from us.’ Further, she said it ‘disgusts her seeing black people holding signs for these Asians and not supporting their own people.'”
Gray, who is black, says Scott then went on to call him a “fool” for marrying Chang.
At another precinct, in Detroit’s East English Village, Scott was overheard telling a voter, “Thanks for voting for me, you don’t need to vote for that ching-chang.” That comment was relayed to Metro Times by Kalaya Long, a volunteer with Voices of Women to Win.
“As an African-American woman, I’ve been called the N-word before in my life and you never forget it,” says Long. “Each time it’s shocking and appalling and disgusting, so when you hear someone that’s a minority and a woman using slurs against another minority that’s a woman, it’s just mind boggling and it just felt dirty.”
Scott did not respond to an email and phone call seeking comment. She currently represents Detroit’s southeast side and three of the Grosse Pointes and was endorsed by Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan in her bid to become a state senator.
The call for an apology is being led by the group the Asian & Pacific Islander American Vote – Michigan.
“Elected officials should be held to high standards of professional conduct, and respect people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds,” APIAVote-MI said in a statement. “No elected official or candidate for office, regardless of political affiliation, should use stereotypical imagery or language. The use of these stereotypes is counter to the progress our country has made over past decades to encourage respect for all communities.”
Other groups that have called on Scott to apologize include the Association of Chinese Americans, the African Bureau of Immigration & Social Affairs, American Citizens for Justice, the Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation, and Equality Michigan. (source)
It is true that if this was a “white man” who said this to the woman, it would probably be the main story on CNN or MSNBC. However, I do not want to emphasize this because it would serve more to aggravate than aid.
To the contrary, this story is another example that true racism makes no discrimination.
As the presence of identity politics has strengthened in the last give years, it is a good time to remember that all men are made in God’s image and likeness, and while men are different in their talents, gifts, abilities, handicaps, and strengths, all are equal in dignity.
The answer to racism is not found in human knowledge, but has been revealed by God in the Bible.
That is what needs to be pointed out first and always because that is what matters. God does not care about skin colors, administrative titles, bank accounts, or other attributes that one possesses which are of a tangible nature. It is the intangible soul that matters and that love done to or harm inflicted upon it by the individual’s decisions that matter.
True wealth does not come from things. It comes from God, and as all must return to God, so must man be ready to render his account of his life and deeds when his time is called.