The poster of “Meet the Flockers” on Youtube.
A petition submitted to the official website of the White House on Sept. 21 called on the U.S. government to ban a controversial song “encouraging violence and crimes” against Chinese people.
"We the People," the official White House website, serves as a rallying point for many people to come together and highlight important issues. Any petition that collects over 100,000 signatures within one month is guaranteed to receive a response from the White House.
The recent petition, which had over 32,000 signatures as of press time, demands that the U.S. government ban the song “Meet the Flockers” by hip-hop artist YG from public media, and also “investigate [the] legal responsibilities” of its writer.
The song's lyrics encourages people to “find a house and scope it out, find a Chinese neighborhood, because they don’t believe in bank accounts.” The song, which was released two years ago, has garnered over 430,000 views on YouTube as of press time.
“I am appalled at the sickening lyrics. It is no doubt discrimination, which encourages thugs to loot a specific ethnic group. Such a distasteful song should be banned from the public media,” said a New-York based human right activist surnamed Wang. Wang told People’s Daily Online on Sept. 26 that the petition is another platform for Chinese Americans to voice their discontent after Peter Liang’s indictment.
In addition to the petition, chat groups have also been formed on social media such as WeChat to support the banning of the song. "Civil Rights," a WeChat public account that was founded in 2013 to support Chinese Americans’ legal rights, has also called for Chinese communities across the U.S. to get involved and sign the petition.
“For a long time, Chinese Americans have been looted or even killed by certain ethnic groups. Chinese living in the U.S. always submit to humiliation and violation, making us the target for those criminals. We cannot let the video go viral, or it would harm you, your friends and family members!” read one post published by the group on Sept. 24.
Chinese Americans have been increasingly active in protesting for their civil rights in recent years. In February, over 10,000 people participated in rallies around the country to protest the indictment of a Chinese-American police officer Peter Liang, who was accused of killing a man with a bullet.