You Wouldn't Like GOP House Candidate Sery Kim When She's Racist

Texas, please don’t send this woman to Congress. We’re begging you.

Republican congressional candidate Sery Kim has filed a $10 million dollar defamation suit against the Texas Tribune because the publication described her recent racist comments as racist. Kim is one of 11 Texas Republicans running in a special election to replace the late Rep. Ron Wright, who died of COVID-19 in February. The Tribune article reported that Kim had lost two of her biggest supporters after saying "she does not want Chinese immigrants in the United States." She doesn't deny making these remarks, which are racist. She just chafes at the Tribune correctly labeling them as such.

Sery Kim made the anti-Chinese remarks earlier this week at a GOP forum in Arlington while responding to a question about U.S. immigration issues.

"I don't want them here at all," Sery Kim said of potential Chinese immigrants. "They steal our intellectual property, they give us coronavirus, they don't hold themselves accountable."

Yes, Kim, who's suing the Tribune for describing this racist crap as racist, believes the Chinese are the ones who don't “hold themselves accountable." Individual Chinese nationals didn't intentionally give Americans coronavirus. Americans themselves willingly spread the disease because they felt they had a constitutional right to go grocery shopping with their faces hanging out.

However, Kim did proactively address the inevitable racism accusations.

"And quite frankly, I can say that because I'm Korean," she added.

This is a brilliant line from a satire, but it's unfortunately real life. I can't believe I have to say this, but China and Korea are two separate nations.

California GOP Reps. Young Kim and Michelle Steel, who are both Korean-born, quickly distanced themselves from Kim's candidacy on Friday. They said in a joint statement that they'd told Kim her comments about Chinese immigrants were “unacceptable," and they'd urged her "to apologize and clarify her remarks, especially as hate against the AAPI community is on the rise."

"However, she has not publicly shown remorse, and her words were contrary to what we stand for," they added. "We cannot in good conscience continue to support her candidacy. We will continue to speak out in support of our AAPI community."

Kim worked as an assistant administrator for the Small Business Administration under the former guy, and like President Klan Robe, she doubles down on her obvious racism when called on it. She claimed in a statement Monday that “calling me a 'racist' is how leftist media practices its brand of politically-correct discrimination against conservatives like myself."

The Tribune never actually called Kim racist. The article said she made a “racist comment," which is admittedly something racists do a lot.

"I am an Asian and an immigrant, and it is shocking the liberal media would identify me as anti-Asian and anti-immigrant," continued Kim. "The truth is that China is the biggest threat to our nation. The Chinese Communist Party steals our intellectual property, perpetuates [genocide], spies on Texans, and had a role in spreading coronavirus around the world ... The people of Texas' 6th Congressional District deserve to know the truth."

Kim viciously smeared other Asians and immigrants for her own personal benefit. She's your typical conservative hypocrite. That's not “shocking" at all. It is, however, objectively racist to conflate the Chinese people with the Chinese Communist Party. If you genuinely object to China's human rights violations, you would welcome Chinese immigrants as refugees from an oppressive regime, not as potential “spies" spreading coronavirus and stealing our most valuable intellectual property, such as Bridgerton. 

But we shouldn't expect that Kim would express compassion for Chinese immigrants or the Americans of Chinese descent who already live here and have to endure racist scapegoating. At last week's GOP event, Kim told the receptive audience that “we are all here because we are pro-life. We are all here because we believe in Jesus Christ. We are all here because we are pro-Second Amendment. Come for me and I will use my hairspray and red lipstick to take you out. This is what Congress is about."

No, it's really not. Early voting for the special election starts on April 19. Texas has made more than a few Ted Cruz-shaped mistakes, but let's hope they don't send Sery Kim to the House of Representatives.

[ People / Newsweek / Texas Tribune ]

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