Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) on Rush Limbaugh and Receiving Threatening Hate Mail

Last week Rush Limbaugh made fun of Chinese president Hu Jintao by mocking the way he talks, in a manner not dissimilar from how a child who has been raised by racist parents might behave. California state senator and chair of the state Senate Select Committee on Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs, Leland Yee, took exception to the way Limbaugh acted and issued the following statement:

Today, Rush Limbaugh reached a new low as he mocked the Chinese language and culture.  His classless act is an insult to over 3,000 years of cultural history and is a slap in the face to the millions of Chinese Americans who have struggled in this country and to a people who constitute one-quarter of the world’s population.  His comments belittle the contributions of the Chinese community and are sadly indicative of the bigotry that has often plagued his commentary and lined his pockets.  Mr. Limbaugh owes the Chinese community an apology for this pointless and ugly offense.

Senator Yee has also launched an online petition condemning Limbaugh's remarks and calling on his sponsors to pull their advertisements from his radio program.

A week after Yee demanded Limbaugh apologize for his ignorant and offensive bigotry, his office received the following hate-filled threat:

Today on MSNBC when asked how seriously he takes these threats he responded:

Well, you know, elected officials throughout this country get these threats and it's rather unfortunate but given what happened in Tucson with the shootings there, we do in fact take it a little bit more serious.

The authorities are investigating the threats but what is really important to all of us is what these threats really talk about or what these racial epithets tells us.

And that is that while we have grown and we have come a long, long way, this country elected the very first African-American president and there are many other ethnically diverse elected officials throughout this country, these threats and these epithets being spewed out is a sad reminder we still have a long ways to go. 

It is a very sad reminder indeed of just how much ignorance, violence, racism and hatred still exists in the minds and actions of so many people.

Monday, January 31, 2011
Since last Wednesday, over 10,000 people have signed senator Yee's online petition to boycott Limbaugh.