Whether it was ignorance or simply a slip of the tongue, Sacramento County health chief Dr. Peter Beilenson says he’s abundantly sorry for referring to Asian Americans as “yellow folks.”
Beilenson used the racist term while speaking at a meeting with the Board of Supervisors about a resolution to declare racism a public health crisis.
“It’s a crucial thing we need to be doing to address the issues of the African American, and brown, and yellow folks, as well as the white folks,” Beilenson said, according to Capital Public Radio.
The Sacramento Bee interviewed Beilenson about his comments. He defended himself, but quickly apologized.
“I wasn’t calling them ‘yellow people.’ ... This is ridiculous, I’m gonna tell you,” Beilenson said. “I was saying African American, brown, yellow, whatever color. ... It makes sense to have a public health emergency called for systemic racism. ... I was speaking out in favor of (the resolution). I certainly apologize. I did not mean to offend anyone. If I have, I’m terribly sorry.
“In my entire 30-year career, no one has ever talked to me about anything remotely like this. It was an extremely poor choice of words. I will certainly never use them again. I pride myself on being a progressive. I’ve never had any complaint about racism at all.”
The term “yellow” as it applied to Asian people came from Swedish physician and botanist Carl Linneaus, known as the “father of modern taxonomy.”
NPR reports that in 1735, Linnaeus separated humans into four groups, including Homo Asiaticus — Asian Man.
The other three categories were European, African and American -- giving these color-coding as well white, black and red. Linnaeus dubbed his Asian group “luridus,” meaning “sallow” or “pale yellow.”