A Korean American reporter from New York City was called a racial while covering a story in Brooklyn on Tuesday.
CeFaan Kim, a reporter for ABC7NY, was working on a story about the opening of Jewish Hasidic schools in Brooklyn when he was called “ch*nky.”
The slur was caught on video but bleeped out when the story aired. In the video you can see a man approach Kim and his camera crew without a mask. He tells them he “just had corona” and isn’t “finished with it yet.”
“Come here ch*nky, come here,” the man says to Kim in the video. “Let me give you a little corona.”
Kim, who is a former U.S. Army Reserve Sergeant, shared the video on his Twitter account. He said the man called him ch*nky 7 times and later identified himself as Hasidic Jewish.
The man who called me “chinky” 7 times identified himself as Hasidic Jewish. He went on about his feelings about Chinese people. For the record, I’m an American born and raised, served my country, and I’m of Korean descent.
— CeFaan Kim (@CeFaanKim) October 14, 2020
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“For the record, I’m an American born and raised, served my country, and I’m of Korean descent,” Kim wrote on Twitter.
A second man can also be seen in the video recording the incident on his iPhone. Kim said he asked the man if he condoned the use of the slur “ch*nky.”
“It’s a free country and we can say whatever we want,” the man allegedly replied, according to Kim.
New York City residents, activists, politicians and more have rallied around Kim.
New York Congressional Representative Grace Meng called the language disgusting and thanked Kim for his service.
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