By Gary Norris Gray, Staff Reporter

Growing up in the last segregated town in the state of New Jersey there was a saying kids sang on the streets of Burlington.

If you’re white-you’re alright

If your brown- hang around

If your red- better off dead

If your yellow- mellow fellow

If you’re black-just get back.

The GOP-(Republicans) seems to be singing this song loud and proud today. Words hurt and many know it and still engage in this kind of verbal activity. This time the target The Asian-American community this time the target elderly and females. The United States has lost its humanity, lost its grace, lost its love for people who do not look like them. The white majority-the group that has the privilege of being identified and accepted as American. This has not changed in over 400 years.

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What do you do when you hear children singing this song, what is it saying about people of color? This was happening across this land in the early 1960s, it is now 2021 and very little has changed. The GOP has taken up this mantra with the leadership of Donald J. Trump. It seems like the United States is currently in the middle of a giant social step backwards hurting anybody in the path of these footsteps.

This time the Chinatowns in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Oakland are hurting. The last step in power and control is to divide and conquer. African Americans and Asian Americans have been showing a unified front after last summer’s protest for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmad Arbery and others. American political forces are trying to break that up, the last step in power and control is divide and conquer. This is what happens when political forces for decency try to come together and unify.

The GOP is “clapping back” with “cancel culture” and  “woke generation”. These new words are the defense for this cultural racial behavior and misconduct by the members of the Republican Party.

Asian-Americans are tuning into the current racial message, and they do not like what they are seeing or hearing. (AAPI) Asian American and Pacific Islanders have more sympathy to what Latino and African- Americans have been going through these past four years in The United States. Japanese-Americans understand being placed in internment camps of the 1940s. Japanese-Americans understand with their property taken.

Chinese-Americans understand because they had to deal with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 restricting immigration to the United States. Filipino-Americans also felt discriminated against them in the 1920s with the anti-miscegenation laws. Through the years the leopard spots (racism) are different, but they have not changed the finished product-discrimination to people of color.

African-Americans and Latin-Americans were the old targets. Asian-Americans are now the new hot target at the moment. Individuals are attacking our Asian Brothers and Sisters in the streets of New York, Seattle, Chicago, Los Angeles, and the Bay Area. This behavior started four years ago and ended last year when our Commander and Chief decided to name the new virus, “Kong Flu,” or “The Chinese Virus” instead of its given scientific name Covid-19. Not only that but this President refused to listen to the doctors and science on how to curb the spread. It was called “a hoax,” by him. Tell that to the half a million Americans who died from Covid-19 last year.

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This former President thought it would be more fun to point fingers east, instead of helping our Beijing friends to find out the origin of the virus, better to blame them and attack all Asian-Americans. It did not matter whether they are first generation Americans or not, whether they come from China, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, or the Philippine Islands. It did not matter attack them all.

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The hateful racial rhetoric of the former President of the United States with his racial animus started all over again. Calling Mexican immigrates “criminals and rapist,” This ongoing attack continued with San Francisco 49er quarterback Colin Kaepernick calling him a “S.O.B.” and wanted him fired. Number seven was released for kneeling in protest of racial injustice and freedom. Kaepernick has not played a game since, blackballed from the game forever.

The National Football League went into an economic tall spin for two years. The NFL got smacked from both political sides, on the right for letting players kneel in protest, disrespecting our flag, on the left for letting majority white conservative owners close their ranks and not opening the doors for Black ownership, Black emotional expression on the field, or Black quarterbacks, the old guard still clinging to the false narrative that a Black man cannot lead a team to a championship even though it’s been done three times.

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The former President of the United States called African and people of color countries s***hole. This is without even visiting these countries. He also had little love for Asian countries, but he had to tolerate China because they were our economic rival.

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Then the two big ones, the big lie in Charlottesville, Virginia when this businessman turned political, he hit the white nationalist jackpot calling the people who participated in the conflict that killed one and injured thirty-five, FINE PEOPLE. Sorry Mr. President fine people do not bring baseball bats, bricks, sticks, knives, and confederate flags to a protest. They do not try to run people over with their car, these are not fine people.

The second event was the Jan. 6th march to the Capitol Building and it really brought out the differences in “law and order,” in this country. It also made Asian-Americans see this stark contrast in justice in the United States.

This man (#45) has set race relations back 50 years but now our young citizens have taken the mantle and have move forward in a unified racial front. This was after the death of George Floyd on a Minneapolis, Minnesota street corner. White, Black, Latino, and Asian young Americans hit the streets all over the country.

For the first time African-Americans did not have to take the lead or lead the charge in America’s troubling race relations. This time the government could not target one group, could not single out one culture.

Former Governor Mike Huckabee continues the racial nonsense with his statement Thursday afternoon, California representative Ted Lieu called him on the carpet immediately.

“Referring to former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee’s offensive tweet that he is going to “identify” as Chinese so corporations like Coke and Delta will “like” him, Lieu said it’s precisely this rhetoric that is fanning the flame of racism.”

The California Democrat went after Mr. Huckabee’s daughter too.

Dear @SarahHuckabee: You defended the former President’s use of racist phrases like Kung Flu. Do you condone Mike Huckabee adding fuel to anti-Asian hate? Asking on behalf of Americans everywhere who drink Coke, fly Delta, wear Nikes and watch baseball.

Asian-Americans finally got it.. They finally understood the racial turmoil, the racial injustice this country has played for over 400 years. They are now mobilizing politically and monetary to end this Asian Hate. They will need and want the assistance of other Americans.

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But we are still not there yet. What hurts more is watching Asian-Americans being frightened by African-Americans led by two prominent Asian American T.V. Anchors Hyunju “JuJu” Chang and Dion Lim of American Broadcasting Company describe their ongoing fear of African Americans. These two anchors use disparaging words for describing African-Americans for two weeks.

These two ladies repeated the three videos over and over and over again of young black men attacking seniors. This is reminiscent of the formula most Networks use to instill fear of Black people. At the same time these ladies skipped over the story of a homeless white male brutally attacking an elder Asian woman in Oakland-Chinatown. That brave lady fought back and put him in the hospital. You would never hear that from Lim and Chang.

Creating the fear towards African-Americans knowing most of the events have been white on Asian crime. This is wrong whether these two ladies are doing it deliberately or not.

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What Chang and Lim won’t tell you is that Asian-Americans are more likely to be attacked by whites then Black. Why? Because of the logic of numbers? But don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story.

This is what happens when power and control are unlimited and not checked by other employees. Lim and Chang have the bully pulpit; their television stations and they use it very well. The average American watching the news would take Lim and Chang at their words, not doing the research on the numbers, not following up on the story. Lim and Chang are doing “the master’s bidding,” and doing it well.

“Who is telling the story?” We all need to pay attention and do something when you see an incident.

Let’s stay united as communities against hate directed at ANY other vulnerable racial, ethnic, or cultural community. STOP THE HATE work together and end this problem.

Gary Norris Gray – Writer, Author, Historian, Gibbs Magazine-Oakland, California and New England Informer- Boston, Mass. THE GRAYLINE:- The Analects of A Black Disabled Man, The Gray Leopard Cove, Soul Tree Radio In The Raw, and The Batchelor News Radio Network, Disabled Community Activist. Email glcgray@gmail.com

©Copyrighted Gary Norris Gray @ Gray Leopard Prod