Democratic presidential hopeful Andrew Yang has been sharing his experiences as one of the lone Asian Americans growing up in his upstate New York town.

The candidate recently joined former U.S. attorney Preet Bharara on his podcast “Stay Tuned With Preet” and recalled being bullied because of his heritage.

Yang said that, during his childhood, the prevailing cultural references to Asians were limited to “Long Duk Dong” of “Sixteen Candles” and the line from the movie “Platoon”: “That’s the way the gook laughs.”

“There’s this one kid who’d just say that to me all the time,” Yang explained. “As the skinny Asian kid getting picked on, I felt like my choices are to either take it or fight back.”