Indian-origin Politician Jenifer Rajkumar Faces Criticism Over ‘Racist' Meme
Jenifer Rajkumar has gained significant attention in the Public Advocate race for New York City as she takes on Jumaane Williams.
News18
Indian-American politician and lawyer Jenifer Rajkumar, running for the Public Advocate for New York City, recently landed herself in hot water, sharing a controversial meme about her meme on social media. Jenifer, a graduate from the Stanford Law School and the University of Pennsylvania, earlier made history by becoming the first South Asian-American woman to get elected to the New York state office.
On Wednesday, she shared a meme on Elon Musk-owned X in which the incumbent Public Advocate Jumaane Williams can be seen passed out in bed, New York Post reported.
The cartoon image also shows a social media quote from Williams that reads, 'Maaaaan, last batch edibles took me somewhere else". Next to Williams' cartoon is a schedule which lists only 'nap' on his agenda for the day.
On the other side, Jenifer showed herself as a hard-working lady following a packed work schedule that starts at 7 AM.
Alongside the meme, Jenifer wrote that their campaign has 'woke up Jumaane Williams," highlighting that he held at press conference at 11:55 AM. She dubbed it as his 'earliest appearance in recent memory."
She added that even the 'Public Absentee" is forced to set an alarm when she is running for the post.
The state Assembly member's soon went viral on the platform, with Opposition leaders calling her out for being 'racist".
Another person criticised her for saying 'nonsensical or racist things," adding that they will continue to 'ignore her".
Arvind Sooknanan, spokesperson for Jenifer's campaign, came out in support of the controversy and claimed that people criticising her were using the Public Advocate's own words against him.
Sooknanan said they used Jumaane's own X post in the image and have reflected on something that 'New Yorkers already know". He later reminded Jumaane about how he worked from a 'remote" office and remained 'unresponsive and missing in action" during the last six years.
Jenifer's post came after Mayor Eric Adams slammed Williams at an event earlier this week. He claimed that Williams wakes up at noon and even 'takes a nap until 2."
He goes looking around the fort to make sure the guards are awake. And then he goes back and takes another nap.
'Then he looks at the press and says, 'My job for over $200,000 is to find a way to criticize Eric or something.'"
The mayor, though, didn't pin Williams' alleged no-show record on being high.
The campaign also doubled down, posting the meme again Thursday afternoon, and replying to one of Williams' social posts.
'It's f–ked up," said one city politician.
An Honan Strategy Group poll found this week that Rajkumar was polling at 6 per cent of likely Dem voters, while Williams, who has barely campaigned, was comfortably at 51 per cent. About a third of voters are still up for grabs, according to the poll.
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