An embattled DA has canceled an event to announce her Chinese name months after she was accused of making ‘hateful remarks’ about Asians.
Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price sent out a press release to announce the bizarre event at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center at 12pm on Tuesday.
But the next morning it was called off after she was mocked online by Asian locals who called it pandering after she was accused of racism by former staff.
They also thought it was a strange thing to do in general as Price, who is black, has no Chinese heritage.
Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price sent out a press release to announce the bizarre event at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center at 12pm on Tuesday
‘Someone messaged me to ask if this was an April Fool’s joke. I then sent this person the press release that came from the DA’s office!’ local TV reporter Dion Lim wrote.
Another Twitter user replied: ‘She is trying to cheat and lie to the Asians, especially, the Chinese community so the nice and friendly communities will not vote her out in November.
‘If she is not removed from the office, she will revenge the community and ethnicities who help vote her out.’
Price has been using a Chinese name since at least last April, when she took out a full-page ad in Chinese-language US newspaper World Journal.
The characters translate to ‘goon’ (government official) ‘seen’ (kind or good) ‘zing’ (pure or virginity) in Cantonese, and provoked similar scorn at the time.
‘It’s actually pretty dumb to call herself that. The three characters together mean ‘a nice virgin bureaucrat’,’ one Cantonese speaker noted at the time.
Price has been using a Chinese name since at least last April, when she took out a full-page ad in Chinese-language US newspaper World Journal
The characters translate to ‘goon’ (government official) ‘seen’ (kind or good) ‘zing’ (pure or virginity) in Cantonese, and provoked similar scorn at the time
San Francisco Standard reporter Han Li said the name sounded more like something out of a Korean drama.
Another Chinese local wrote: ‘I’m enraged by Pamela Price having a Chinese name – tainting our language and culture! Bad person!’
A second wrote: ‘Just like all the other racists before us she thinks she can pander to the community w some Chinese characters.’
Price was to announce her Chinese name in honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in recognition of Alameda County’s diverse population.
She was to be joined by Elaine Peng, founder of the Mental Health Association of Chinese Communities, at the now-canceled event.
Price has a strained relationship with the local Asian community after several claims of racism over the past year.
Patti Lee, who worked as Price’s spokeswoman for about six months last year until she fired her, said the DA ‘constantly and openly’ made derogatory comments about Asian Americans.
In a legal claim – a precursor to a lawsuit – she claimed she was fired because of anti-Asian discrimination, and after she complained about breaches of duty in the office.
She is seeking a $1.5 million settlement for emotional distress stemming from retaliation, discrimination, wrongful termination and failure to pay wages.
Lee said Price would often make the discriminatory remarks ‘under her breath’, while also accusing the former spokesman of leaking information to the press.
Price has a strained relationship with the local Asian community after several claims of racism over the past year
The fired spokeswoman ‘would frequently hear derogatory comments about her race made by supervisory employees, including District Attorney Pamela Price herself,’ the claim said.
‘Indeed, Ms. Price would constantly and openly make derogatory remarks against Asian Americans.’
The allegations come as Price faces a recall effort barely a year into her tenure as the county’s first black woman to hold the DA post.
Recall campaigners turned in more than 123,000 petition signatures to the county’s Registrar of Voters. The organization has 10 days to decide whether the petition includes at least 73,000 valid signatures to put the question to a vote.
Lee also claims the DA’s office violated the First Amendment by barring the Berkeley Scanner founder Emilie Raguso from a press conference in November.
The office repeatedly banned the reporter from their press list without notice earlier in 2023, according to Lee.
Per the scanner, the DA’s office originally claimed Raguso was turned away for security reasons but later admitted it was an ‘oversight’.
In a February 26 letter to the DA’s office from Lee’s attorneys, the fired spokeswoman described what happened at the press conference as a ‘content-based restriction of reporting’ and a ‘cartoonish violation of the First Amendment’.
‘Ms. Lee was aware of the preexisting animosity and knew that the reasons for refusing Ms. Raguso access to the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office’s press conference were pretextual,’ the letter says.
Price declared: ‘This directive reduces reliance on sentencing enhancements and allegations as an effort to bring balance back to sentencing and reduce recidivism’.
Lee’s letter adds that Raguso’s exclusion came ‘at the specific behest of District Attorney Pamela Price’.
She says that Price’s office repeatedly tried to delete, change and hide public records when the Scanner and other Bay Area news outlets began inquiring about the decision to exclude Raguso.
The journalists being kicked out of the press conferences came after the Berkley Scanner published damning memos she sent about relaxed sentencing.
The memo made probation the ‘presumptive offer’ during plea negotiations, and said low-end prison terms should be offered in cases that aren’t eligible for probation – although nearly every crime in the California penal code is eligible for probation.
The policy allows for exceptions in ‘extraordinary’ circumstances, including human trafficking, hate crimes, child or elder abuse, and crimes that cause ‘extensive’ physical injury.
Price declared: ‘This directive reduces reliance on sentencing enhancements and allegations as an effort to bring balance back to sentencing and reduce recidivism’.
The directive became especially controversial as Price refused to confirm she would back sentencing enhancements to three gang members accused of murdering two-year-old Jasper Wu, who was killed by a stray bullet.
This upset the Asian community, which frustrated Price to the point where she wrote another memo with the subject line ‘to the Chinse communities’.
The National Asian Pacific Islander Prosecutors Association, which received the email, said it wasn’t clear who she was referring to.
Price meets with an Asian constituent at a recent event
However, it said the message complained about ‘vocal members of the local Chinese community and media’ she accused of spreading ‘misinformation’ about the case.
‘Based on prior statements in the e-mail, she was insinuating that she did not believe the Chinese community was aware of the very basic tenets of the American criminal justice system,’ the association said.
The furor prompted veteran prosecutor Rebecca Warren, who is of Chinese descent, to quit and release a scathing resignation letter.
‘I can no longer tolerate this mistreatment of the AAPI [Asian American and Pacific Islander] community by leaders of our office,’ she wrote.
Warren wrote that Price’s words in the email and public statements about the case were inappropriate ‘while discussing one of the most horrific and tragic murder cases ever’.
‘The AAPI community is not the only community angered and traumatized by the staggering number of innocent children being murdered by gun violence in our county,’ she wrote.
‘The entire community is affected.’
Warren also claimed Price’s second in command told an Asian prosecutor that Samoans were prone to drinking and fighting.
