Yang said it’s clear the judge doesn’t have cultural sensitivity. His remarks were meant to denigrate or minimize Asian Americans and “any Asian American that sees or hears his statement will understand that he is making fun of or mocking our community.”
“This is a great illustration of how Asian Americans are not immune from racial bias and discrimination in our criminal justice system,” Yang said.
And others just called the comment racist.
“All I can say is, Ugh. Old racist stereotypes die hard,” said Mae Ngai, the Lung Family professor of Asian American studies and professor of history at Columbia University.
“I’m going to summarize what I remember, what I was told,” Schroeder said last week. “He was telling a joke … he told the officer … he made a reference about telling a joke about ‘Why did it take seven shots to shoot Jacob Blake,’ something to that effect.”
Both the defense and the prosecution agreed to dismiss the juror, and the judge admonished him while doing so.
“It is clear that the appearance to bias is present and it would seriously undermine the outcome of the case,” Schroeder said.
Rittenhouse, the armed Illinois teenager who killed two people and wounded another during unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last summer, is on trial on homicide charges.