What’s on your mind?
UPDATE: Is anyone following the Miley Cyrus controversy?
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Disney teen idol Miley Cyrus has been accused of taunting and mocking Asians by making slant-eye poses in a personal photograph with her friends.
A snapshot of Cyrus, 16, best known as the star of the Disney Channel show “Hannah Montana”, and friends posing with an Asian friend and pulling their eyes sideways surfaced on the Internet this week. Read more…
There is a good round-up of thoughtful coverage on Racialicious.
If your child is a Hannah Montana fan, how do you address this issue? What if your child is of Asian ancestry? What does it feel like to be a Korean-American or Japanese-American fangirl and have your idol insult your ethnicity?
Timothy Cole is on my mind today. His victim and family appear in court in Texas in an ongoing effort to exonerate him of a crime that DNA evidence proves he didn’t commit. Timothy won’t benefit, however, as he died in prison in 1999 from lack of treatment for serious asthma.
I don’t even know how to react to the injustice of his case, which I know is one of many. It just breaks my heart.
One story here, many more can be found online:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100249923
On Miley Cirus… I haven’t seen the picture, nor do I think we know the context under which the photo was taken. It seems to me this is likely being blown out of proportion. Was it her intent to mock Asians, or was she simply engaging in ridiculous humor between teenage friends? (Saying or doing something with a friend that you would never say or do with/to a stranger because said friend understands you are joking and similar retort is returned in jest?)
“If your child is a Hannah Montana fan, how do you address this issue? What if your child is of Asian ancestry? What does it feel like to be a Korean-American or Japanese-American fangirl and have your idol insult your ethnicity?”
My daughter, who is Korean, is outside the Miley Cyrus age demographic and also not particularly interested in emulating pop stars. She’s a serious athlete, however, and had an immediate and negative reaction to the similar behavior of Spain’s basketball team.
When that story hit the news, I asked her outright what her thoughts were, and her response was immediate: “Racists.”
I think there’s a difference between Cyrus’s behavior and that of the Spanish team, which the second commenter touched on a bit. The Spanish team’s photo shoot was approved formally, which doesn’t appear to be the case here.
In honesty, I haven’t taken the time to research anything beyond the article referenced above, and am trying to understand the presence of the young man second from the left, who to me appears to be Asian himself, and how the behavior of the others ties into him. I ask that not to excuse these young people, because the behavior is demeaning to Asians and, if I’m correct about his race, that young man, regardless of the circumstances. I’m just trying to understand the context of the photo.
I think the issue of POC in majority white social situations can be difficult. No one can know what the Asian young man in the photo is thinking, but I do know from experience how hard it is to point out prejudice when you are the lone kid of color in the joint. Thea at Racialicious made this point, too, to the folks who were attacking the young man for allowing this display of insensitivity:
“Having been the only person of colour for years when I was around the age of Cyrus and crew, the reasons why I had only white friends and the reasons why I couldn’t articulate to them why it upset me when they were mildly racist, were far more complex than just wanting to “hang out with the cool kids.”
Heck, it’s not always easy to call your friends on racism when you’re a grown up. I just posted an article about that on my blog yesterday: http://whattamisaid.blogspot.com/2009/02/return-of-mona-race-and-friendship.html
Recently, my husband and have come to realize that our son’s lead preschool teacher is racist and holds Asians in low esteem. (We are Caucasian, our son is Asian.) The co-teacher is Asian, and our son’s favorite. But, the level of distaste shown by the primary teacher is fairly plain … and usually disguised in a veil of excuses based on the Asian teachers perceived work ethic. Or, better put, based on the box the primary teacher has put the co-teacher in over time.
Now, we’re caught between wanting to get our son out of an unfortunate, and somewhat decaying, situation and not wanting our son to be “the new kid” in a new school. (He will be entering Kindergarten next year and his current school’s year ends in May.) In everything, we believe in world-proofing the kids and do a fair amount of talking about race, racism, favoritism, etc. at home.
Any advice or thoughts greatly appreciated.
@Angela Riccio. I am surprised that you do not see these gestures as blatantly racist. Cirus and her friends are mocking Asian features – these are gestures that have a long history of being used to degrade Asians (not unlike black face has been used to mock African Americans). I can’t think of any context in which these gestures would be appropriate. By dismissing this situation as “ridiculous humor” and accusing those who express offence as “blowing things out of proportion,” you actually contribute to silencing the voice of victims of racism
re: miley cyrus – her non-apology apology is ridiculous… http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,488573,00.html
i dunno… when i (or my 5 year old or 3 yo) are asked to make a “goofy face” we automatically cross our eyes and stick out our tongues… when you do a search for “goofy face” on google or flickr.com, the same is true.
when you search for “slanty eyes” or “chink eyes” on google or flickr.com, you will see pictures similar to the one that miley cyrus is pictured in…
for someone like miley cyrus to say that “someone is making something out of nothing” – clearly the girl is either a liar, ignorant and/or delusional… or all of the above….
my daughter is a big fan of miley cyrus. but from now on, i will not be allowing her to listen to her music. i just can’t…
Was this joking between friends or poking fun at asians? I don’t think we will ever know the true background of what the photo or their intentions were, but I do think Miley needs to make better decisions with what she does because when you are in the lime light your every move is scrutinized from big things right down to little things.
@Angela (comment #2)
I agree with Jenn–as an Asian American woman, I have a hard time feeling like this is “innocent” because I was taunted by kids doing this to me growing up, and because even as an adult this is a universal sign of subordination (as in trying to make someone subordinate to you) directed at Asians/Asian Americans.
At the risk of being seen as grossly self-promoting, I wrote a blog entry about this very subject called “PSA: Asians don’t find slant eye/ching chong funny”
http://mixedraceamerica.blogspot.com/2009/02/psa-asians-dont-find-slant-eyeching.html
Cosign with Jenn. I am Asian, and am wondering what could ever be considered funny, a joke, or a jest about the way I look — whether between friends or not.
So sad that “context” (which is closely related to that old “good intentions” standby) is still an acceptable excuse for blatantly racist behavior.
re: Miley photo. The mind boggles:
1) The Asian kid is taking heat for “allowing” that behaviour?! appalling. Even if he did “allow” it.
2) That non-apology. First she insults Asian people (and every one who cares about equity) with the gesture then she insults our intelligence with the “coincidence” of her “goofy face” being a racial slur and I suppose coincidentally being the same “goofy face” of the other white people in the picture.
In looking at the picture, I had assumed that the Asian kid was unaware of the gestures since the others are all behind him or out of his view. That it to say, I thought that they were cowardly making fun of the Asian kid, in an egregiously offensive way. And doing it in a group against a single victim, where the group is itself of the dominant culture and the victim is of a minority culture. despicable.
A BBC presenter lost her job over her on-the-job-but-off-the-air use of the slur “golliwog.” I’d never heard of golliwog or the related words golly and wog. They’re derived from a black-faced Victorian book character and subsequent namesakes.
This article goes more into the backstory of the word than the sacking. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/feb/06/race-thatcher-golliwog
Anyone from outside Britain heard of those slurs? Is it possible that many people who knew the word didn’t know it was offensive?
I do have some sympathy for people who genuinely do not know that they are using a word offensively. That said, they ought to desist immediately upon being informed. For example, I remember feeling awful about having routinely used “to gyp”/”to jip” until I learned (as a teenager, about 20 years ago) of the connection to Gypsies or Japanese people. And good grief, people are still saying “to jew.”
I am thinking about the power dynamic in the room when the picture was taken. Miley Cyrus, your friend who happens to be the most powerful and famous teenager in the world, wants to make racist faces, then many teenagers will go along with it. Sadly, she’s a teenage girl, likely to do many inappropriate and impulsive things as she matures, and with Miley, they always seem to be caught on film. As a parent, I have a hard time letting ANY teen star serve as a role model for my kids, and this reinforces my beliefs. What a sad situation for all involved.
First on the Miley photo – why the heck can’t people just apologize, even if they don’t fully understand why? I guess that goes along with the “intent to offend” concept – since she did not intend to offend, how could she possibly have done so.
Second – I came across a thread on a Guatemala adoption forum talking about hair. They were discussing how some of their kids had expressed a desire to have blond and blue or green eyes like their family. I posted a link to the mini documentary – “A girl like me” – which I realize shows young AA women. But I was surprised and disapointed to be met with complete silence – no one responded to my post at all – it was like crickets chirping.
But what about the guy in the red shirt? Why isn’t anyone outraged about his insult to Native Americans? Or maybe the Asian guy is mocking us roundeyes? It’s so hard to know what I should be offended by!
Look, this kid is the daughter of the guy whose fortune is based on “Achey Breaky Heart.” I expect that she’s pretty much an idiot – heck, she’s a teenager so it’s pretty much guaranteed.
The Spanish basketball team was a lot more disturbing; this is a bunch of kids goofing around and trying to diagnose what’s in their minds is absolutely useless projection. I think, anyway.
A while ago I saw a link to an excercise college student did to raise awareness of socio-economic privilege. I suggested using this at my office and now am on the hook to plan the event. However I can’t find any information on how exactly to run the excercise, just commentary on the excercise. Can anyone help me find this?
I had a hard time with this. My daughter is about to be five. She and all her little friends all love Hannah Montana.
The fact is is that Miley Cyrus is a role model for many little girls, including Asian-American girls, like my own daughter. That is what her career is centered around. I expected my daughter to have to deal with this in one form or another with her peers – but goodness, with a young girl celebrity that she looks up to?
It really was the non-apology that really got to me. It’s horrible that you can disrespect a people and shrug it off as completely unimportant.
Everything about this entire situation is the exact opposite of what I am trying to teach my daughter about respect for others. It’s like a living example of what not to do.
Since this is an open thread…
My daughter recently discovered the Amy Hodgepodge chapter book series. It features a 4th grade girl, who is multiracial (black, white, and Asian, if memory serves). I’m a bad mommy and my kid is a quick reader–she finished the first before I could preview it. She said it was great and has promised an ARP review of it… So, I can’t exactly endorse it since I haven’t read it, but based on what I skimmed, I’d give it a thumbs up.
I discovered today that there are other titles in the series as well.
The series is co-authored by a black woman, Kim Wayans (previously of “In Living Color” fame, and other endeavors), her husband, who is white, and a third author who is Asian. Wayans and her husband were inspired to write the series by there nieces and nephews, many of whom are multiracial.
the bbc presenter is the daughter of Margaret Thatcher (now a B celebrity on UK television) and yes, golliwogs were toys based on the black and white minstrels – it is a well known term of abuse that she chose to not say on camera (but afterwards in a conversation on set, other presenters took exception quite rightly) now she wants an apology from the bbc? apparently being racist means you are a victim now … crazy
@Derek (#15)
The guy in the red shirt is not making fun of Native Americans–he is making fun of Asian people, because this is (at least in my interpretation) him mocking an image that is common among many Japanese young girls–that they will cover their mouth with one of their hands and flash the “peace” sign.
Which just reinforces the sense that this whole photo is aimed at mocking Asian people–and I suppose Derek that while I understand you are being facetious when you say that the “Asian” guy is potentially “mocking” “round-eyed” white people, I think you and I both know (especially if you are posting on a website called ANTI-RACIST PARENT) that in our society of white privilege, the lone Asian(American) guy NOT pulling his eyes into a slant is hardly trying to “offend” you–and all the other non-Asian Americans in the photo doing the slant eye are taking part in a racist ritual that has caused quite a bit of pain to people on the receiving end.
So while I’m sorry that you find it hard to figure out what you should be offended by, for those of us who have been the butt of many a racist joke, we find it offensive.
It’s been said before, and I’ll say it again. The INTENTIONS of the white people in this picture do not matter. The IMPACT on PoC and actually everyone who cares about equity is what matters.
I am not interested in dissecting what was on Miss Cyrus’ mind when she did this. It changes nothing. A genuine, unqualified apology would have been nice, as would a response/censure of her of some kind by Disney, but we all know what their track record is like when it comes to issues of race.
Remember, when addressing racism, in yourself or others, it’s about the IMPACT, not the INTENTIONS. and – it’s not about my (as a white person) and my feelings/intentions/guilt.
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Derek, I think you’re diminishing the experiences of the people who find this racist. You may disagree with us, but dismissing other people’s opinions as “useless” when we’re discussing the racist impact of something is kind of not the point of this whole website.
My daughter is only 3 but when HM has come up in the past I tell that HM is ‘tacky’ and we don’t like tacky. I so don’t want any of my kids idolizing Hollywood stars at such a young age. Too much potential for this type of stuff.
This did present itself as a great opportunity to say something to my in-laws about some of the things they say. First off my m-i-l (who is 4’11″) has been known to tell my sons who are very short that they need to eat better or they will be short and people don’t like short people. Then last night my f-i-l first made a racist joke that I told him was inappropriate and then brought up the photo. He tried to say it was in fun. I told him that they were making fun of the way people look it is just plain wrong. I then said that would slap any person that did that to my daughter or anyone who made fun of my sons for their height.
The rest of the night was rather uncomfortable but I think (and really hope) that means that I made my point on all fronts.
I think Miley Cyrus truly believes that the picture was ok. She is too ignorant and self-absorbed to realize how offensive it really is.
I’m disappointed to read that some people don’t seem to recognize this blatant racist act. Yes, it’s blatant. Do you let your kids flick people off? Even if it’s innocent and ‘goofy’? Blatant. Don’t let them do it and be clear. All ages.
If any body that has been prejudice against should know how a Asian feels. Life is hard enough. I would not promote Miley Cyrus or make her rich from a Asian girl. Parents need to take her fancy cars away.