At a D.C. Council hearing this week, former Mayor Marion Barry deflected pointed criticism of his recent controversial remarks about Asians and repeatedly blamed the media for taking the comments out of context. But he didn't actually provide any context that made them less atrocious.
Suggested Reading
The Washington Post reports:
Barry has twice come under fire in recent weeks, first for singling out Asian-owned businesses in his ward for being โdirtyโ and then, this week, for lamenting the number of immigrant nurses โparticularly from the Philippines.โ
โThe media has a way of distorting things,โ he said Thursday. โTheyโre in the business of sensationalism.โ He spoke while presiding over a hearing on the budget of the cityโs Office of Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs.
Barryโs anti-media broadsides did not prevent several Asian-American leaders from offering testimony criticizing Barryโs comments.
David Chung, the chairman of the D.C. Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs, was perhaps the most eloquent of Barryโs critics.
โMy father is actually one of those dirty store owners you were referring to,โ he said, noting that his family has run a Ward 7 convenience store for more than 20 years. โWhen you made those statements, you broke my heart .โ.โ. A lot of those store owners like my father are now concerned.โ
Read more at the Washington Post.
Likeย The Rootย on Facebook. Follow us onย Twitter.ย
Straight From
Sign up for our free daily newsletter.