Just Saying | Racism in Hollywood: it’s high time Asians started fighting back, as the Oscars reminds us
Yonden Lhatoo says Asian Americans are speaking out more against discrimination, but it would help if they were more aggressive about it – like the black community
Why are Asian Americans – and, by extension, other Asians living in the West – so feeble in standing up to racism?
I find many people asking this question after the Oscars this week.
After so much butthurt among the black community over the shameful dearth of African-American nominees for Hollywood’s biggest awards, comedian Chris Rock did the whole Uncle Tom routine as the host, with lots of jokes about the lack of diversity – but only in the black context.
Then he trotted out three Asian-American children in business suits on stage, making fun of them as hard-working accountants. “If anybody’s upset about that joke, just tweet about it on your phone, which was also made by these kids,” he added.
So, while a much bigger black star, Will Smith, boycotted the ceremony in protest, Rock – with the approval of the organisers, who would have vetted his routine – thought it would be funny to punch down at a smaller and even more underrepresented minority.