A Bonkers CNN Story About the Judge in the Rittenhouse Trial

 Here’s a headline from a CNN “news” story: “Judge in Kyle Rittenhouse trial makes inappropriate Asian food joke.”

The news report begins: 

The judge presiding over the homicide trial of Kyle Rittenhouse confused observers after making a strange and off-color joke inside the courtroom on Thursday.

“I hope the Asian food isn’t coming… isn’t on one of those boats from Long Beach Harbor,” said Kenosha County Circuit Court Judge Bruce Schroeder as the court was preparing to take a lunch break.

Schroeder, the longest-serving active judge in Wisconsin’s trial courts, appeared to be referring to the supply chain backlogs caused by congestion problems in California ports. But his comments were offensive and perceived as anti-Asian by some and as placing blame on Asian people for a large-scale event.

So, the judge’s corny joke here was that he hoped the Asian food that had been ordered for lunch wasn’t stuck in one of America’s ports in California after being shipped all the way from Asia. A Columbia professor tells CNN: “All I can say is, Ugh. Old racist stereotypes die hard.” An activist tells CNN: “It harms our community and puts us in the crosshairs of micro aggressions as well as actual physical violence.”

What exactly is the stereotype here? Who on earth blames Asians or Asian-Americans for America’s difficulty clearing backlogs at America’s ports? And why have so many people lost their minds?