Sacramento County health chief calls Asians ‘yellow folks,’ says racism was not intended
Sacramento County health chief Dr. Peter Beilenson used the term “yellow folks,” considered a racial slur, to refer to Asians during a Board of Supervisors meeting declaring racism a public health crisis.
As first reported by Capital Public Radio, Beilenson used the phrase while speaking in support of Tuesday’s resolution declaring racism a public health crisis in Sacramento County.
“It’s a crucial thing we need to be doing to address the issues of the African American, and brown, and yellow folks, as well as the white folks,” Beilenson said, according to Capital Public Radio.
In a phone interview with The Sacramento Bee, Beilenson sounded flustered and apologetic, but it was not clear whether he fully understood the context or history of the term’s usage.
“I wasn’t calling them ‘yellow people.’ ... This is ridiculous, I’m gonna tell you,” Beilenson said. “I was saying African American, brown, yellow, whatever color. ... It makes sense to have a public health emergency called for systemic racism. ... I was speaking out in favor of (the resolution). I certainly apologize. I did not mean to offend anyone. If I have, I’m terribly sorry.
“In my entire 30-year career, no one has ever talked to me about anything remotely like this. It was an extremely poor choice of words. I will certainly never use them again. I pride myself on being a progressive. I’ve never had any complaint about racism at all.”
The term “yellow” emerged in the late 19th century to depict East Asians as a faceless, ominous threat to the Western world. Derogatory phrases like “Yellow Peril” were commonly used during the 1880s and the early 1900s, when anti-Asian laws such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 were passed to block Asian immigration to the United States.
It’s a term with long historical roots in xenophobia and anti-Asian sentiment, reports of which have been on the rise since the coronavirus pandemic began.
Some advocates have said California has undercounted COVID-19 rates within the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, and a UC Davis survey in June found hundreds of at-risk Filipino Americans had yet to be tested. When asked whether this incident might reflect advocates’ concerns over that lack of data, Beilenson said his remarks were unrelated.
“There’s certainly no intention of any slight whatsoever. I’m terribly sorry,” he said.
On Friday, the Sacramento Asian Pacific Islander Regional Network released a statement criticizing Beilenson’s remarks and the county’s response to the pandemic for the Asian American-Pacific Islander community.
In the statement, advocates said they had approached the county at the beginning of the pandemic with a list of demands and suggested policies to give AAPI communities more access to preventive resources and education about COVID-19. None of these suggestions were implemented, they said.
“There are no more excuses or other possible ways we can deny or overlook how these mischaracterizations, and other racial aggressions inflict damage and harm on our humanity ... as demonstrated during this pandemic where Asians and Pacific Islanders have endured staggering losses and increased anti-API hate and violence,” the statement said. “We accept (Beilenson’s) apology as an initial step in moving forward.”
The network, which represents more than twenty AAPI leaders and organizations across the county, asked for ongoing meetings in the future with Beilenson to revisit their suggested policies and more funding from the Department of Health Services to support their suggested actions.
This story was originally published November 17, 2020 at 6:22 PM.