January 2009

Rosie O'Donnell: 'Ching Chong' Jokes

Submitted by Edwin on Thu, 01/01/2009 - 21:56

Rosie: Over One Billion Offended?

Mon., Dec. 11, 2006 1:56 PM PST by Gina Serpe

Apparently, offending Kelly Ripa and the whole of the Claynation was just a warm-up for Rosie O'Donnell.

The loose-lipped View master completed her alienation hat trick last Thursday, managing to offend some in the Chinese-American community with an impromptu impersonation.

Racist Casting - Upcoming Movie About MIT Blackjack Team

Submitted by Edwin on Thu, 01/01/2009 - 22:19

Remember that cool book 'Bringing Down the House' about those MIT kids who won millions in Vegas? Well Kevin Spacey is making a movie about it called "21". It turns out the book's main character "Kevin Lewis" and many members of the team were Asian men. "Kevin Lewis" is an Asian guy named Jeffrey Ma, who at the time was a fraternity, college water-polo player.

Check out this blurb from a newspaper: "Mezrich mentioned the stereotypical Hollywood casting process — though most of the actual blackjack team was composed of Asian males, a studio executive involved in the casting process said that most of the film’s actors would be White, with perhaps an Asian female. Even as Asian actors are entering more mainstream films, such as “Better Luck Tomorrow? and the upcoming “Memoirs of a Geisha,? these stereotypes still exist, Mezrich said."

Producers recently cast Jim Sturgess as the lead actor, and purportedly no Asian men will be included in the movie, even as co-stars. This is racist! Read the links below for more info.

Hollywood fails ethnic realism test Margaret Tran May 23, 2008

Submitted by Edwin on Thu, 01/01/2009 - 23:01

Hollywood fails ethnic realism test

Margaret Tran
May 23, 2008

As an Australian-born Asian I am well-versed on the Asian stereotypes that plague the Western film industry. The nerdy Asian guy, the exotic dragon lady, the perpetual foreigner type - the list goes on. Racial caricatures often have little if any basis in truth, but their impact continues to permeate society.

When I heard that Ben Mezrich's book Bringing Down The House was being made into a film I was stoked. Here was a story with the potential to be a positive step against typecasting Asians in film. The book tells the true story of how six MIT students, mainly Asian-Americans, perfected a card-counting tactic and reaped millions of dollars from several Las Vegas casinos. The film adaptation, 21, was picked up by Sony Pictures and the Australian director Robert Luketic.

Asian Americans seen negatively - Results of landmark survey called startling, disheartening

Submitted by Edwin on Thu, 01/01/2009 - 23:09

The study is about 6 years old but unless it's over 10 years old or some significant event involving Asian-Americans has occured I think you can assume most of stats are around the same. Will give my opinions after I've heard some of yours.

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Asian Americans seen negatively
Results of landmark survey called startling, disheartening
Matthew Yi and Ryan Kim, Chronicle Staff Writers

Friday, April 27, 2001

Discrimination against Asian applicants for college admission

Submitted by Edwin on Thu, 01/01/2009 - 23:52

In 2004, a Pulitzer-prize winning book documented discrimination and stereotypes against Asians in college admissions. It is similar to what Jewish students and Black athletes faced 50 years ago.

Here's an excerpt from a November 2006 Wall Street Journal article about this:
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In 1990, a federal investigation concluded that Harvard admitted Asian American applicants at a lower rate than white students despite the Asian’ slightly stronger test scores and grades. Federal investigators also found that Harvard University admissions staff had stereotyped Asian American candidates as quiet, shy and oriented toward math and science. The government didn’t bring charges because it concluded it was Harvard’s preferences for athletes and alumni children – few of whom were Asian – that accounted for the admissions gap.

Chow Yun Fat: "Hollywood does not accept Asian actors for leading men"

Submitted by Edwin on Fri, 01/02/2009 - 00:41

Alvin Lin (MIT) wroteon 29 May 2007 at 08:55

Why E.R. Will Never Have an Asian Male Doctor

Submitted by Edwin on Fri, 01/02/2009 - 00:54

"Several years ago, I had a ritual where I would have lunch with several Asian American friends at a Chinese restaurant every Sunday afternoon. Although women were often a part of this lunch group, it was mostly young Asian American men. Unintentionally, it turned out that most of these Asian American men in my Sunday lunchtime ritual were either physicians or attending medical school.

Videogames Stereotype Asians (article)

Submitted by Edwin on Fri, 01/02/2009 - 00:58

Some popular videogames promote racist, negative stereotypes of Asians that would be unacceptable in other forms of media, says a Canadian researcher.

Robert Parungao studied four of the best-selling games designed and published in the United States during a 20-year span: "Kung Fu," "Warcraft 3," "Shadow Warrior," and "Grand Theft Auto 3."

He said that the games feature evil gangsters, all of them non-white, who "function as narrative obstacles to be overcome, mastered, or ultimately blown to smithereens by the white hero."

"Some say [racist stereotypes in games] is terrible," he said. "Other people in the games community say, 'Lighten up, it's a game, you don't have to worry about political correctness'."

A fifth-generation Canadian of Chinese and Filipino ancestry, Parungao said that with videogame sales at about $30 billion worldwide - making them more popular than movies - negative stereotypes matter.

The Xenophobic, Anti-China Bias in Recent Media (Jeff Yang article in Washington Post)

Submitted by Edwin on Fri, 01/02/2009 - 01:00

Alvin Lin (MIT) wroteon 16 July 2007 at 11:15

Jeff Yang has a really interesting piece in the Washington Post on all the recent furor over dirty, tainted, poisonous food... from China: 'A Taste of Racism in the Chinese Food Scare'.

There's been a lot of talk and portrayal of China as a foul, contaminated nation, serving foul, contaminated food, and exporting foul, contaminated food to our clean, righteous United States. This rhetoric, of course, is nothing new. We've always had to deal with jokes and punchlines about the cleanliness of Chinese restaurants, along with the usual cat-eating jokes. Hell, it goes as far back as that classic schoolyard taunt, "Me Chinese, me play joke..." You know the rest.

U.S.-Sino relations: nationalism, racism and worries about what China's emergence.

Submitted by Edwin on Fri, 01/02/2009 - 01:12

The anti-China bias, racism, and xenophobia in America is really messed up...
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For China's artists, the selection of Lei as the lead sculptor for the [MLK Sculpture], to be unveiled in 2009 on the Mall, is a triumphant moment. It is a recognition of how rapidly their status has progressed in the generation that has grown up since the repressive years of the Cultural Revolution.

Not everyone feels this way.

Atlanta resident Lea Winfrey Young says the "outsourcing" by U.S. companies and organizations to China has gone too far this time. She and her husband, Gilbert Young, a painter, are leading a group of critics who argue that an African American -- or any American -- should have been picked for such an important project.

"Dr. King's statue is to be shipped here in a crate that supposedly says 'Made in China.' That's just obscene," Winfrey Young says.

Article about American racism/xenophobia over Toyota joining Nascar

Submitted by Edwin on Fri, 01/02/2009 - 01:17

An article about Nascar's racist fans and Toyota joining the Nascar circuit. It reeks of the same kind of anti-Asian xenophobia that caused the Vincent Chin murder:

It’s the Daytona 500, the kickoff to the Nascar season, and for the first time in Nascar’s history Dodge, Chevy and Ford will be joined by ... Toyota. Japan’s biggest car company, which is poised to overtake General Motors as the largest car manufacturer in the world, has entered the hallowed tracks and pit rows of that most American of race circuits, the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. But to hear some Nascar fans talk, when those engines fire up it will be Dec. 7, 1941, all over again.

The war metaphors have been brought to the fore by Jack Roush, a prominent racing team owner. Other Nascar columnists, pundits and fans, even a Web site dedicated to being “against racing Toyotas,” have chimed in against the auto maker’s entry into Nascar.