Kevin De Leon thinks all Asians look alike

Following a widely mocked glitzy special interest funded “inauguration” that did little to dispel the public’s concern over corruption in the state Senate, Senator Kevin De Leon was criticized as being out of touch with the voters in his district. If there was any doubt, then the flier mailed out to voters last week targeting Korean voters was both embarrassing in its ineptitude and insulting in its ignorance. De Leon’s opponent in the Democrat vs Democrat Nov. 4th state Senate election is the popular Korean-American community activist and business leader Peter Choi whose father was the sole Korean consul to Los Angeles in 1951. Unable to get endorsements from any current Korean American community leaders, De Leon mailed out fliers featuring the faces of … Chinese legislators.

Does De Leon think all Asians look alike? Can he not tell Chinese and Koreans apart?

To make matters worse, De Leon perpetuates an outdated “model minority high achievement” stereotype by using the flier to focus on education as if that were the only issue of importance to the Korean community. As a Korean American I am personally insulted by this sort of thinking. Koreatown is in the center of the 24th Senate District and is the largest community of Koreans outside Seoul, Korea. Koreans are more diverse than this tired wonk-grade-obsessed-dweeb image De Leon perpetuates. We are artists, business people, chefs, designers, construction workers, mountain climbers, and entrepreneurs and we support Peter Choi because we know he understands the diversity that is KTown.

Unlike De Leon who insults me and all my fellow Korean Americans by not differentiating between Chinese and Koreans and painting us as nerds.

The fact is Kevin De Leon has never been there for the Korean community. He has been invisible in KTown’s fight for political representation on the LA City Council. And I can never forget the images of brave Korean American business owners guarding their shops during the LA riots, exercising their 2nd amendment rights to protect their property because the government was unable to help them. Kevin De Leon has made it his personal crusade to take away those guns from those Korean-Americans and leave them undefended during times of trouble.

Honor is very important to Koreans and by insulting us De Leon has awoken the sleeping tiger in me. I’m calling on all Korean Americans to help make history on Nov. 4th and elect our first Korean Senator. Vote Peter Choi for state Senate!

To learn more about Peter, visit ChoiForSenate2014.com .

Thank you.

Proud KA,

Grant Kim