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More villification of the Chinese....
Most of you have heard by now the racist and xenophobic political ad by Michigan Republican Pete Hoekstra. Once again, villification of Asian people seems to be a conservative demagogue's tactic---let's start up the yellow peril hysteria once again. But Lawrence O'donnell, the political commentator on MSNBC expressed a lot of what I was thinking when he questioned the actress's participation in this racist ad. My first thought was, "Why would you even accept a part in this commercial which perpetuates a stereotype?" But O'donnell explains a lot more and articulates my sentiments. Is it worth it? Did the actress know what she was getting into and how this was going to come off? I'm not slamming her, but I just wonder how she now feels after doing something that perpetuates the stereotype of Asians being sneaky, under handed, and some sort of "yellow peril". What's your take on all of this? Watch O'donnell's comments and let us kno...
Today's Round Up
Richard Park, number 12, celebrating score with team mate Chris Kunitz So I'm watching the hockey game last night between my Washington Capitals and their rivals the Pittsburgh Penguins. My man Richard Park came back from playing in Europe and signed on with the Penguins. He's not a standout player, but a 3rd or 4th line kind of guy. If you're not familiar with hockey, each team has 4 lines and they rotate them in and out of the game on shifts. Usually your top two lines have your main stars and scorers. Anyway, at last night's game, the play by play announcer, Doc Emerick makes a comment about Richard Park as being "from Seoul, Korea". Huh? You know, that kind of stuff just promotes North American Asians as somehow being this "other" group, still foreign and "not one of us". For those in the hockey world who know, yes, Park was born in Seoul, but as a kid his family emigrated to North America. He grew up in Canada and the US. Maybe i...
A Follow Up Thought on Don Lee's "Yellow"
Just to quickly follow up a thought I posted in response to the Don Lee's "Yellow" thread, I stated that it was refreshing to see Asian characters without any special emphasis on their Asian-ness. Characters that just happen to be Asian. I actually caught an episode of "House" the other week and it had James Hiroyuki Liao whose character was the long time partner of Iranian born actress Shohreh Aghdashloo who was portraying a performance artist. What struck me about this episode was that the screenplay didn't dwell whatsoever on their ethnic backgrounds. They just simply were....and we got to see their humanity. I actually feel like I want to write a letter to the screenwriter and commend him on a nice portrayal of an Asian American man and a Southwest Asian woman without falling into the lazy trap of just using stereotypes to "explain" these characters. I found that to be refreshing and I'd hope for Hollywood to continue this (but I ain't...