Democrat Rep Bettie Cook Scott has apologized for using racial slurs against an Asian American opponent.
Michigan Democrat Rep Bettie Cook Scott has apologized for racist slurs against Asian American opponent Stephanie Chang.
According to Detroit Metro Times, Rep Bettie Cook Scott referred to Chang as “ching-chang” and “ching-chong” to multiple voters, as well as calling one of Chang’s campaign voters an “immigrant”. Scott allegedly told the voter “you don’t belong here” and “I want you out of my country.”
“Thanks for voting for me, you don’t need to vote for that ching-chang,” Scott reportedly said.
“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 two opponents were running for the Democratic primary, which Chang won with 49% of the vote. Scott only secured 11%.
Chang’s husband Sean Gray attested to the allegations. “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 added that he also got grief from Scott because he is a black man who married Chang, describing him as a “fool”.
Scott has since apologized in a statement through her attorney Bill Noakes.
“I deeply regret the comments I made that have proven hurtful to so many. Those are words I never should have said,” she said in the statement. “I humbly apologize to Representative Chang, her husband, Mr. Gray, and to the broader Asian American community for those disparaging remarks. In the divisive age we find ourselves in, I should not contribute further to that divisiveness.”
“I have reached out to Representative Chang to meet with her so that I may apologize to her in person. I pray she and the Asian American community can find it in their hearts to forgive me.”
