'Might be breakfast': Mayor slammed over 'racist' Chinese joke
The mayor of the Gold Coast has been forced to issue an apology for a 'joke' aimed at Chinese people at a press conference.
Mayor Tom Tate was speaking in Townsville on Monday, discussing natural disaster management and what the Gold Coast could learn from north Queensland.
Touching on how victims displaced by natural disasters could be made to feel in temporary accommodation, he said pets could come with people too, 7News reported.
He then went on to make the racist remarks about Chinese people, feeding into offensive stereotypes.
"You wouldn’t want to put a Chinese next to someone who’s got a cat, you know," he said.
"She might be breakfast."
Tate has served as the mayor of Gold Coast since 2012 and has been re-elected twice.
People were quick to point out the racist joke on social media.
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"A horrible bad joke and also OLD," one person remarked on Twitter.
"Is he freaking serious?" said another, while one woman said the mayor "has to go".
However, by Monday afternoon, the mayor had issued an apology for his remarks, chalking it up to his "clumsy sense of humour", 7News reported.
'Might be breakfast' GC Mayor Tom Tate has apologised for a racist comment about Chinese people he made at a press conference in Townsville. The Mayor was discussing what the Gold Coast could learn from the city about disaster management. https://t.co/xsGo19CzSg #7NEWS pic.twitter.com/SKA3sCaSGw
— 7NEWS Brisbane (@7NewsBrisbane) March 29, 2021
"There was no intention to cause offence, but now, having thought through what was a poor joke, I sincerely apologise," the statement said.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, there has been a rise in anti-Asian hate crimes.
“The mainstream tabloid media in Australia was very quick to label COVID-19 as the 'Chinese virus' early on and blamed the ‘apparent’ eating habits of Chinese people and more broadly Asian people for the spread of COVID,” Erin Chew, the National Convener for the Asian Australian Alliance told Yahoo News Australia last year.
Earlier this month, a gunman killed eight people in Atlanta, six of which were Asian women.
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