Upstart 2020 candidate Andrew Yang has seen his campaign grow dramatically in the last month, but that is not the only size he has been preoccupied with.
Yang, 44, a serial entrepreneur and Democratic candidate for president known for unique and sometimes bizarre policy positions, recounts in a book he published last year that he was self-conscious in his youth about whether he had a small penis.
“Hey, Yang, what’s it like having such a small dick? Everyone knows Chinese guys have small dicks,” were among the painful taunts from his middle school classmates. He recalled: “I became quite self-conscious. I started wondering if I did indeed have a small dick.” Perhaps mercifully, Yang offered no further detail.
Yang recounted the childhood victimization in The War on Normal People as part of a larger narrative of him being bullied as one of the only Asian-Americans in his school.
“That didn’t go unnoticed,” relates Yang. “Classmates offered frequent reminders as to my identity.” Yang says the bullying included a deluge of stereotypical Asian racial slurs and impressions.
Yang says the bullying has made him want to stick up for the little guy, and has pitched his 2020 campaign in part on those grounds. His platform includes giving each adult in America $1000 a month to avoid what he argues is an upcoming unemployment crisis for middle America.
This is also not the first time Yang has waded into sensitive topics. This month, Yang weighed in on circumcision saying he was against the practice. Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, who is also an Orthodox Jew, invited Yang onto his show to discuss the issue.
His campiagn has been considered a long shot campaign, but recently the media has taken note as he reached the threshold of 65,000 donations to qualify for the first Democratic debate in June.
Yang qualified for the first debate in part with the help of online users of 4chan and Reddit, who have raised his profile through memes. Yang’s association with parts of the Internet has forced him to denounce white nationalists, who have shown some affinity for his policy platform.
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