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She Tackled Breslin: Mary Ji- Yeon Yuh vs. the Real
"She Tackled Breslin"
"Mary Ji-Yeon Yuh versus the Real New Yorker"
Village Voice - May 22, 1990
Page 11-12, Metro Section
by David D. Kim
In a city where racial and sexual tensions constantly threaten
to bubble over, Mary Ji-Yeon Yuh is considered a hero by many,
particularly Asian Americans, for speaking out against Jimmy
Breslin and the deadly 'isms'.
"Who's Jimmy Breslin to me?" Yuh asks. "He's not important in
my life, he doesn't edit my stories, I don't work with him, really.
The truth is, I couldn't care less what Jimmy Breslin thinks."
Yuh, 25, is a brave soul who dared challenge Breslin's May 3
column, in which he lamented the absence of his wife, City Council-
member Ronnie Eldridge, from their domicile. Her memo to Breslin
unleased a tirade in which he charged into a roomful of New York
'Newsday' staffers spewing slurs like "cunt," "yellow cur," and
"slant-eyed."
Despite a reported four-to-one margin among Newsday readers in
favor of Breslin, Yuh has received numerous letters and calls
defending her action; some supporters even advise her to "not be so
nice." Unfortunately, the sting of Breslin's comments and the
ensuing publicity will continue to haunt her. "It's not something
that I wanted," she says wearily. "It's not something that I ever
want to happen again. I was forced to deal with a situation that
was not of my own making." Yuh was not the only one of 'Newsday's'
female employees who took issue with his column. Nor was this the
first Breslin article to outrage women. Yet a notably absent voice
of support was that of women's groups.
"It is as much a women's issue as it is an Asian-American
issue," explains Yuh, "because half of his insults were sexist
insults. Ronnie Eldridge is a prominent feminist in this city. I
think a lot of women's groups felt very uncomfortable publicly
criticizing her husband....[O]ther than the women's caucus at
'Newsday,' there wasn't a single women's group that expressed
support." Suzanne Levine, editor-in-chief of the 'Columbia
Journalism Review' and longtime acquaintance of Ronnie Eldridge,
described Breslin's remarks as "reprehensible," adding that Yuh
"was absolutely right by making a federal case of it." She
declined to comment, however, on the lack of support from women's
groups.
Yuh's bravado earned her a dubious notoriety among some New
Yorkers. "Today, when I was walking down a street in lower
Manhattan, some truck driver yells out at me, 'Leave Breslin
alone!' and just keeps screaming that at me as I'm walking down the
street," she says.
When Breslin was suspended on May 8, 'Newsday's' Murray
Kempton and the 'Post's' Jerry Nachman came rushing to Breslin's
aid, waxing sentimental over journalism's halcyon days. "[T]hose
days have a sweeter scent in the memory than the fumes that emanate
now. We took care of each other then," wrote Kempton. Nachman
followed suit on Friday, saying: "When Breslin's banishment is
over he will find an Intruder waiting....The Intruder will ask
painful and distracting questions. 'Are you sure you want to say
that, Jimmy?...Will that get 'them' angry again, James?'"
Many minority journalists clearly understood who constitutes
'them' in Nachman's column. "[This incident] pulled a lot of the
old-boys club out of the woodwork," says Helen Zia, president of
the New York chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association,
"openly bemoaning the fact that their club can no longer go on
these race or sex jags, or go on long drinking binges and cover up
for one another because, now, there are these outsiders. Who are
these outsiders? They're minorities and women." Yuh's assessment
is more blunt: "The good old days were racist and sexist, and I am
glad they are on their way out."
Both columnists suggested that Yuh would be forever branded a
troublemaker, Kempton accused her of finkery, while Nachman wrote
threateningly that Yuh had "stepped into a minefield."
"What [Kempton] is saying is that we should keep silent in the
face of racism and sexism," said Yuh. She concedes, however, that
"if people remember this...they're just as likely to think of me as
a troublemaker rather than somebody who simply stood up for what
she believed in."
Breslin's cheerleaders also cling to the freedom-of-speech
issue. "Nobody is telling Jimmy Breslin that he cannot write what
he wants to. What he has been told is that he cannot abuse his
colleagues, and that is very different," counters Yuh. Zia
concurs: "He wasn't expressing his viewpoint on a broad issue, he
was angry and venting his anger at a particular employee and
attacking her for her race and her sex; that has nothing to do with
freedom of speech or his opinion."
Indeed, Zia notes, the press completely ignored the civil
rights implications of Breslin's outburst. "There are actually
laws, well-established civil rights laws, that anybody could have
checked with the Equal Opportunity Commission or the U.S. Civil
Rights Commission to ask them: is this against the law?"
The incident brings to question what Zia calls "the white
liberal, civil rights establishment" and its willingness to address
such matters. As far as Breslin being a spokesperson for this
"establishment," Yuh wonders "how he reconciles being able to say
such things with his supposedly, liberal pro-equality views."
"I think this is actually very revealing about his character
and what he REALLY things about women and minorities." Specific
examples of Breslin's perceived lack of sensitivity to women and
minorities include a column he wrote recently on the Happy Land
fire, which drew fire from domestic violence expert Alisa del Tuffo
- in a letter to the editor - for being sexist. And in an April
'GQ' magazine article on Steve Dunleavy, Breslin said, in reference
to TV journalists, "I can't watch one more Asian women who talks
like she's from Nebraska."
Breslin's remarks are set in the context of the Bensonhurst
trial, the Korean-Black standoff in Flatbush, and more recently,
the racially motivated beating of a Vietnamese man in the Flatbush
section of Brooklyn. Anti-Asian violence has become alarmingly
frequent, says Zia. "I think [Breslin's outburst] is a good
example of what's going on in New York. The city has changed. Not
only in New York, but the nation....The racial complexion is
changing, and people of color and women are not putting up with
being second-class citizens anymore. We expect to be represented
everywhere, including the newsroom."
"I don't think 'Newsday' expected the Asian community to
respond so strongly to this because the Asian community has a
reputation for being quiet, for not being well-organized, and for,
in general, not making much of a fuss," says Yuh.
Now that the smoke has cleared, will Mary Ji-Yeon Yuh forgive
Jimmy Breslin? "What does it mean to forgive?" Yuh asks. "If
forgiving means that I have to believe that he doesn't harbor any
racism or sexism, then no. If forgiving means that I understand
that people make mistakes, then yes, I have forgiven him. Even the
best of people make mistakes. And even people who make mistakes
again and again and again - are redeemable."
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