This undated file photo shows Lee Wong, chair of West Chester Township Board of Trustees, Ohio. Wong spoke of patriotism and showed his chest scars while giving a speech at a meeting in West Chester Township, Ohio, on March 23. (PHOTO / CHINADAILY.COM.CN)
As a longtime official of West Chester Township, an affluent suburb north of Cincinnati, Ohio, Lee Wong has found himself being questioned if he's "American enough" or "patriotic enough" more in the past few years than at any other time.
People question my patriotism, that I don't look American enough. They can't get over this face. I want to show you something (unbuttoning his shirt to show his scarred chest); I don't have to live in fear, intimidation, insults.
Lee Wong, chair of West Chester Township Board of Trustees, a position equivalent to mayor
Then came the shootings in the Atlanta area of Georgia in which six Asian-American women were gunned down last month. Wong couldn't remain silent anymore.
He spoke of patriotism and revealed scars he received while serving in the US military, at a March 23 meeting of the board of trustees. The video of the meeting has since gone viral worldwide.
"People question my patriotism, that I don't look American enough. They can't get over this face. I want to show you something; I don't have to live in fear, intimidation, insults,"Wong said while unbuttoning his shirt to show his scarred chest.
"I am 69 years old and I want to show you what patriotism looks like. This is my proof. This is sustained from my service in the US military. Now, is this patriotic enough?"
Wong, who is the chair of the township board of trustees－a position equivalent to mayor－told China Daily of the racial discrimination he has experienced since coming to the US in the 1970s from Malaysia.
The worst was in the 1970s, when he was studying pharmacy in Chicago. A white man, mistaking him as Japanese, kicked him, punched him and choked him. Wong ended up in hospital as a result.
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In the 1970s and 1980s, heavy industry in the US was waning, and workers were experiencing widespread layoffs just as corresponding businesses in Japan were making major inroads into US markets, especially in the auto industry. The anti-Japanese sentiment manifested in the US with occasional public destruction of Japanese cars and the murder of Chinese American Vincent Chin, who was mistaken for a Japanese.
Criminal complaint
Wong filed a criminal complaint and went to court. The defendant continued to call him a "Jap" in court and was given a one-year term of nonreporting probation.
Wong said the experience steered him away from medicine. "I was confused, and I needed to learn about America," he said.
There is discrimination everywhere. It's not so blatant. You can feel it, but you cannot see it, touch it ... Like opportunities for promotion, you are always the last one to be considered sometimes.
Lee Wong, chair of West Chester Township Board of Trustees
He decided that the army would be a good place to start, joining as a military police officer. Wong eventually got into the army police force's elite Criminal Investigation Command.
"I stayed in the army for 20 years and served the country all over the world," Wong said.
When he retired from the army in 2005, Wong decided to run for office to serve the community; he got elected and has been reelected since.
As an Asian American, Wong said he stood out in the military as well as in his current community.
"There is discrimination everywhere. It's not so blatant. You can feel it, but you cannot see it, touch it," said Wong. "Like opportunities for promotion, you are always the last one to be considered sometimes."
Sometimes it's jokes told by people around him. However, those jokes are "demeaning and dehumanizing to any Chinese American", Wong said.
When he first started campaigning for township office, Wong, a Republican, said he sometimes had doors slammed in his face.
"I am the first Asian American in the state to run for public office and be elected," Wong said.
In the past couple of years, Wong noticed that he has experienced more vocal and expressive racial discrimination than ever before.
With hate crimes against Asian Americans rising, Wong has begun to respond differently.
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"I spoke up and I said what needed to be said for the first time to the public like that."
