While at least one New York politician is wriggling away from accusations of playing the race card, New York City Councilmember John Liu—a rare Asian American elected official and candidate for city controller—is scrambling to clear the record on his immigrant roots.
Liu's war of words with the New York Daily News began with a campaign ad highlighting Liu's working-class immigrant background. According to the ad's narration, Taiwan-born Liu toiled with his mother in a sweatshop—part of a then-thriving garment industry known for Dickensian working conditions. Flashing an image of female garment workers slaving away, the ad touted Liu's rags-to-riches ascent from Queens to corporate America and then public office: "Working in finance taught Liu how to account for every penny, but working in that sweatshop as a kid taught him why we need to."
The Daily News was quick to test Liu's street cred. The paper discovered, through interviews with Liu's family, that young John hadn't really worked at a factory, per se, but merely helped out at home spinning yarn. Liu's father described his son's earnings (25 cents per ball of yarn) simply as “allowance."
