Andrew Yang nailed his answer on being the only nonwhite candidate on stage

[TomCADem]

This is a great answer from Andrew Yang that addresses both economic justice and social justice.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/12/19/21030918/andrew-yang-democratic-debate-race-freedom-dividend

He answered by invoking economic inequality, explained the barriers it creates to political engagement, and, most impressively, ended with a plug for his signature policy proposal: a universal basic income.

“It’s both an honor and disappointment to be the lone candidate of color on the stage tonight,” said Yang, the first Asian American to run for the Democratic presidential nomination. He added that he remembers people using racial epithets toward him as a kid.

“But black and Latinos have something much more powerful working against them than words. They have numbers,” he continued. “The average net worth of a black household is only 10 percent that of a white household. For Latinos, it’s 12 percent. A black woman is 320 percent more likely to die from complications in childbirth.”

And because of those economic disparities, minorities don’t have as much money to donate to political candidates as wealthier (and therefore generally whiter) people do. Yang said “fewer than 5 percent” of Americans donate to political campaigns.

[msongs]

1. harris could have been there but she chose to drop out nt

[Tiggeroshii]

5. ...because she was not receiving enough donations.

That was the reason she gave for dropping out. She could no longer afford to fund the campaign. Bolstering Yang's point even more.

[The Mouth]

13. Sad, and a bad decision, though

As much as Joe is the front runner by a lot of measures, we've had front runners eliminated before.

-Gary Hart
-John Edwards
-RFK

We never know what can happen; I like Joe, but if something unfortunate happened to him she would have possibly picked up massive support from the AA voters.

She was far from my first choice, second to last, actually, but we are all the poorer for her not running.

Just a cranky .02

[The Valley Below]

2. He did nail it.

[Sapient Donkey]

3. Yet tonight I still find myself debating people on twitter who claim Yang is a white supremacist

Yeah, baffles me too. It's usually based on some flawed logic and bad information, but it never seems to die even when we can point to answers like ones he gave tonight.

[Recursion]

4. The problem is there's a definite alt-right pro-Yang presence online

Even (especially?) as a Yang fan there's no way around that for me: I don't think he does anything to encourage that (in fact he's spoken out against it) but some of the stuff you'll see on Reddit or the broader Internet still troubles me.

[Amimnoch]

9. Hannibal Lecter supported the Opera..

That doesn’t make the Opera pro cannibalism.

To the best of my knowledge, Yang has never, either through behavior or word, encouraged or validated the platform of those types. Unless a candidate is doing something to promote, I don’t judge a candidate based on a fringe of their supporters. He hasn’t done the “good people on both sides” bullshit like Trump has.

[Sapient Donkey]

12. This is true and something I noticed when it started

I think I even posted something on here about it, because I found it alarming. It wasn't so much of a "oh look, this guy used to be a horrible person with horrible beliefs, but they had a change of heart", but rather they still had horrible beliefs and were posting horrible memes with Yang at the center. However, that sort of 'shitposting' seemed to have stopped fairly quickly as far as I can tell, and most of his supporters seem like legitimate supporters who have a similar world view as he does.

Those criticisms of him at this point seem very disingenuous. Why do some people have to purposely stretch the truth for cheap attacks than have serious discussions about policies? I get the arguments against universality of UBI or concerns about using a VAT to pay for it, and I fully support those sorts of discussions. It cannot stand the unfair attacks that purposely mischaracterize candidates (or people in general)

[Joinfortmill]

6. Maybe it's just a straight out lie

for political purposes.

[TomCADem]

10. Wow. I Guess They Did Not See Yang on Fung Bros

The Fung Bros are one of my favorite food vloggers, and Yang was hanging out with them talking about why America is ready for an Asian American President:

[whistler162]

7. We have come a long way

next up African Americans will be considered as white not just people of Jewish ancestry or Slavic ancestry! White is a nice generic catchall term that seems popular among both right and left groups.

A very diverse debate group just not diverse in the way some want. <shrug>

[Sherman A1]

8. Yang did nail it

And I find him to be about 3 steps ahead of the rest of the field in his understanding of what had happened to us economical, it’s affects across a wide spectrum of social ills and what is coming for our society.

[redqueen]

11. He had a very good night, for sure.

K&R