Members of the New Black Panther Party staged a demonstration outside Yum’s, a Chinese takeout restaurant in Washington, DC, on Tuesday to protest China’s racist treatment of Africans during the coronavirus pandemic.
The protest was flagged by Mother Jones writer Stephanie Mencimer, who spoke to demonstrators and filmed video:
The panthers are here at Yum’s to protest the Chinese government’s expulsion of Africans from their homes and hospitals, a woman explained to me. @PoPville
— Stephanie Mencimer (@smencimer) May 19, 2020
— Stephanie Mencimer (@smencimer) May 19, 2020
As Breitbart News has reported, Africans have been subjected to an onslaught of racism within the People’s Republic of China, and found themselves expelled from restaurants and even their homes:
The Africans – many businessmen, students, and others from places like Nigeria, Kenya, and Zimbabwe – say they are also being subject to arbitrary coronavirus testing and still shunned when they test negative. Many have spent years in China without leaving, unlike their Chinese neighbors, making the Communist Party’s explanation that travelers from abroad require more isolation and testing to prevent “imported” cases of Chinese coronavirus not applicable.
However, Yum’s is simply a local Chinese/American eatery, not affiliated with the Chinese government.
The Washington City Paper (via Mencimer) described it in 2002 as “undoubtedly a local favorite, lauded by both club kids and swing-shift workers.” The founder, Jerry Chen, came to the U.S. from Hong Kong:
In 1979, Jerry Chen left his native Hong Kong and joined numerous relatives living in Washington and working in the restaurant business. Chen, already a skilled cook, worked beside uncles and aunts at various local carryouts until Joe arrived in 1983 and offered to help him operate his own restaurant. After learning of their plans, the men’s grandfather, who had been in this country for years, offered a few words of wisdom on how to gain the business of their new compatriots.
“When I came to this country, he told me, ‘American people say, “Yum, yum, yum,” when they eat good food,'” says Jerry Chen. “He told me Yum’s was a good name for a restaurant.”
The City Paper noted a history of tension between Asian restaurants and the local African American community. Interestingly, it quoted “Malik Zulu Shabazz, a Washington attorney and leader of the city’s New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense.”
According to Shabazz’s Facebook page, the demonstration was part of a nationwide protest, timed for what would have been Malcolm X’s 95th birthday. The New Black Panther Party has declared “sanctions against China,” and is also targeting Chinese-American businesses as part of a “Buy Black Offensive.”
Breitbart News’ Matthew Perdie and Jack Knudsen captured the D.C. group as they moved from Yum’s to Washington’s Chinatown.
Shabazz shared a YouTube video, apparently filmed outside the Chinese embassy in Washington, DC, featuring a “press conference” targeting “Anti-Blk Chinese Merchants/Human Rights Violations.”
“They start the damn virus, then blame the black man,” Shabazz is seen declaring. He also called Chinese merchants the “bloodsucker of the black community” and declared an “international sanctions campaign against all Chinese merchants.”
Demonstrators are seen in the video holding signs with slogans such as “Sanction Chinese Merchants,” and “Buy Black.”
Shabazz urged his audience to boycott all Chinese restaurants, beauty salons, and other businesses: “We’re not here to buy no goddamned chop suey. We’re not here to buy nothing from these people.”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, is available for pre-order. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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