Blowing Water | Harmless or hurtful? Getting hot under the collar about ‘Yellow Fever’
There’s a place for jokes about race, but such humour must strike a fine and difficult balance, Luisa Tam says amid uproar over Asian eatery’s name
Sometimes when we go to a stand-up comedy show, the comics make a disclaimer at the beginning stressing that their jokes are not intended to offend, belittle, marginalise or make anyone feel uncomfortable. That got me thinking: are we as a society becoming too sensitive and intolerant of seemingly harmless humour?
Last week, Amazon’s Whole Foods Market became embroiled in a social media controversy after its newest outlet in California partnered with an Asian restaurant that had the racially charged name “Yellow Fever”. The name of the eatery is perceived to be a derogatory term describing a “condition” whereby non-Asian men, often Caucasians, are attracted to or obsessed with Asian women.
The Asian, female-owned business had had no such complaints about its name since it opened over four years ago. Its Korean-American co-founder Kelly Kim insisted that the name was meant to “celebrate all things Asian” but admitted that it was somewhat “tongue-in-cheek and kind of shocking, but it’s not exclusive”.
The eatery caught public attention only after it paired up with Whole Foods. Maybe it’s because Whole Foods is considered mainly a “white” establishment, and hence the name Yellow Fever suddenly became relevant in the anti-racism public discourse.
Kim and her business partners obviously thought the name was fine and would serve its purpose for being attention-grabbing; they were certainly right about the latter. But honestly, can someone be racist against members of their own race?