I'm usually not someone who'd like to blow things out of proportion and make a big thing out of nothing, well, at least that's what I think. But I'm gonna use a seemingly insignificant incident to highlight a bigger issue.Yesterday I've read that the popular American country singer Toby Keith made a silly gesture at a concert in Norway, pulling his eyes back (making his eyes almond-shaped) when hearing the lyircs "yellow" (which stands here for the yellow [East and South East Asian] race.
You can check the video here, the gesture is at 0.24. As usual in America, there will be a group, who will protest immediately, in this case it was Asian American Justice Center, who said:
"Toby Keith embarrassed himself and his country, denigrated the Noble Peace Prize and offended Asians and Asian Americans by using a crude, racist hand gesture." [source]
First I thought: Wow, what was that? Let me see! Then I checked the video and saw that half-second long gesture and thought: Give me a break, that's what all the fuss was about? I'm always very outspoken when it comes to racism (I hate racists!), but saying it was a crude, racist hand gesture goes too far in my opinion. In Keith's case, I certainly wouldn't go that far.But there were other instances where I wasn't really amused. The photo on the left supposedly shows Joe Jonas from the Jonas Brothers and on the right is Miley Cyrus doing the same gesture a while ago. Not really cute in my opinion, but I would not call it racist either. [But I must add that Miley did apologize after that photo was leaked (bigger version below)]
And then there were many cases of this silly gesture just before the Beijing Olympics 2008, which caused quite a big uproar. The photos on top show the Spanish men's and women's basketball team [no 1, 2, 3] and the one below shows the Argentinian women's football team [no 4] trying to be funny by making their eyes look Asian. The last photo is a bigger version of Miley Cyrus and her friends again.In my opinion: This is not cute and not funny anymore. I mean doing it as a group photo? Come on, it's just plain stupid. It's taunting and making fun of a certain physical attribute and I think the people on those photos look very immature and silly. What's the point of adults behaving like that? Who thinks that's funny? Well, I don't.
On a personal note: I remember, when I was in Singapore in 2005 and a group of Malay [adult] guys made jokes about my nose and laughing, asking me questions like: "How come you Caucasians all have big noses?" "I don't know, I'm born this way, that's how it is," I replied. I felt very uncomfortable. It's not my fault that I was born White and with a big nose and same goes for Asians being born with smaller eyes. It's not their fault either.
In conclusion: I'm not saying all these people are racist, maybe some are, but it's hard to tell based on the gesture, it won't expose them as racists necessarily. In my opinion, this just shows that they're ignorant and silly. I have no other explanation. I have many Asian friends and I'd never do something like that. I know that not every Asian will be offended by this, but some would. Most likely those who lived abroad and suffered real racism and discrimination. I'm sure they won't see this as innocent and cute. I think that, because of the history of racism [especially in Europe and USA], we should be careful how we joke about other races. I've no problem making jokes about my own race, laughing at my own expense. But making jokes about other races is a very fine line to walk, we need to be very careful. Playing with stereotypes is fun, but only to a certain extent.
Ok, this was my 2 cents on the complex issue, now share your views on these things:
- Can we make a difference between Keith's gesture and the others?
- Do you think these photos are innocent and cute or silly and disturbing?
- Have you ever been taunted, because of the physical attribute of your race?
- When is a ethinc joke or gesture funny and when is it inappropriate?
[Sources: Photo 1, Photo 2, Photo 3 and 6, Photo 4 and 5, Photo 7]
