NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio: Keep Jesse Watters off TV after 'racist' segment

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) took to Twitter Wednesday evening to demand that Fox News’ Jesse Watters be kept off TV after a recent “Watters’ World” segment on "The O’Reilly Factor" was characterized as racist by critics.

In the segment, Watters visited New York's Chinatown neighborhood to conduct man-on-the-street interviews with passersby about the presidential campaign and Chinese-U.S. relations. Watters asked questions such as “Am I supposed to bow to say hello?” and “Do they call Chinese food in China just food?”

Some Twitter users objected to the segment.

The Asian American Journalists Association issued a statement demanding an apology for the segment, which they said “committed a litany of offenses.”

The statement said, in part:

It’s 2016. We should be far beyond tired, racist stereotypes and targeting an ethnic group for humiliation and objectification on the basis of their race. Sadly, Fox News proves it has a long way to go in reporting on communities of color in a respectful and fair manner.

Host Bill O’Reilly called the segment “gentle fun.” There was nothing gentle or fun about it. It was rude, offensive, mocking, derogatory and damaging.

Fox missed a real opportunity to investigate the Asian American vote, a topic not often covered in mainstream news.

Watters addressed the controversy on Twitter, writing that his segments are “meant to be taken as tongue-in-cheek.”

Watch the original segment below:

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