FULLERTON : Activist Draws Ire of Korean Group

The Korean-American Assn. of Orange County on Monday condemned political activist W. Snow Hume for making alleged racial slurs against Mayor Julie Sa during a recent City Council meeting.

Koo Oh, president of the local Korean-American Assn., called Hume’s remarks “malicious racial slurs . . . that must be condemned.”

At a Nov. 8 meeting, Hume told the council he had hired a private investigator to follow Sa, who is of Chinese and Korean descent, and was informed that the mayor may not live in Fullerton. Hume pointed out that a council member not living in the city could not serve on the council.

“To put it in English that you will all understand, especially you Ms. Sa: You no sleep here, you no be on council,” Hume said at the meeting.

Sa said last week that she lives in Fullerton and called Hume’s statement insulting and derogatory before leaving on a business trip out of the country.

Hume, who was a leader in last year’s successful recall of three council members who had voted for a 2% utility tax, said he is not racist. But he admitted mocking Sa’s speech as “vindictive payback” for a comment he says Sa made last year attacking his character.

“Was what I said tacky? You bet,” Hume said Monday. “Was it mean? You bet. But, was it racist? No, not really. What’s worse, to mock somebody’s accent or to insult somebody’s character?”

At a news conference in Garden Grove, Oh called for Hume to publicly apologize to Sa and the Asian community of Fullerton, where the largest number of Orange County’s Korean Americans live.

“Mr. Hume addressed Mayor Sa in contorted broken English, attempting to mimic a stereotypical Asian accent,” Oh said. “We publicly condemn Mr. Hume’s repugnant and meaningless racist attack against Mayor Sa and the Asian American community.”

Hume said he will not apologize “unless there’s an exchange of apologies . . . An insult for an insult, that’s my motto.”