An Ohio state lawmaker pulled a joke off his personal Instagram account after receiving a call about it from a reporter this week.
State Sen. Jay Hottinger, R-Newark, who’s Instagram handle is SenJayH, posted an image that said: “Mr. and Mrs. Wong have a baby boy. The nurse brings out a WHITE baby boy. The confused father says 'Two Wongs don't make a White' and they named him …Sum Ting Wong.”
Hottinger posted it March 20 to his 593 followers and said he didn’t think much about it until the Cincinnati Enquirer contacted him. The paper reported that Hottinger initially said there wasn’t anything problematic about the joke and that he had not received any complaints.
“It was inappropriate of me to put it up so I took it down and apologized,” said Hottinger on Friday.
Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper said, “That post was both offensive and un-American. The fact that he shared it shows how deeply out of touch he is.”
Kathy Chen, executive director of Asian American Community Services, told the Enquirer: “That joke is not funny at all. In fact, I thought it was racist and belittled the API (Asian Pacific Islander) communities.”
