Hawaii House of Representatives member Beth Fukumoto responded to a racist letter that was sent to her by a Trump supporter earlier this month, reports Big Island Now.
According to NextShark, the sender mocked Fukumoto’s Japanese heritage, writing, “Your poor grandparents got put into a camp in the USA? Boo hoo hoo–you Japs murdered thousands of servicemen at Pearl Harbor–did you forget that detail?”
The letter went on to attack illegal immigrants, Black people, Muslims, and members of the LGBT community.
This is just one of many letters like this that Fukumoto has received. In today’s political climate, she felt that it was necessary to finally address her attackers.
“I worked to fight racist rhetoric when I was a member of the Republican Party, and I left when I realized I couldn’t win that fight from within,” Fukumoto said. “The White nationalist undercurrent of the Presidential campaign stretched far beyond Donald Trump. His success is the result of white nationalism left unchecked within the GOP for years,”
“Today, every elected official in the GOP needs to make a choice. Be vocal, public and specific in your opposition to prejudice everywhere—especially in the Oval Office,” Fukumoto continued. “Or, be complicit and continue to work peacefully with a party that has gained electoral wins by building coalitions of mistrust and hate.”
Fukumoto served as the House Minority Leader of Hawaii until 2017. She was voted out after attending a women’s march and voicing concern over Trump’s attitude towards women and minorities, according to Hawaii News Now. Fukumoto is now a registered Democrat.
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