"Oh hey look guys, isn?t this funny?
?Sum Ting Wong?? ?Bang Ding Ow?? Hoooweee, what a real knee-slapper, right?
Actually?
I guess we can just shrug this one off as another local TV news fail, amirite? Nope, no we can?t.
Both KTVU News and the NTSB can issue their glossed-over, boilerplate PC apologies for their very non-PC screw up and everyone has a good laugh about it and we move on, right?
Wrong.
It?s racist, plain and simple.
?But Keiko, it?s just a joke. It?s funny. It?s cute. Lighten up.?
No, no I won?t lighten up. And it?s not funny. It?s not cute.
It?s racist.
You have to understand, Asian racism is so mainstream in this country that people seem to think these kind of shenanigans are just that ? shenanigans. Nope. It?s offensive. It?s juvenile. It?s crude.
It?s racist.
But then again, I suppose folks expect Asian-Americans to just ?get over it? because we?re such a ?model minority?. And it?s not like this joke really hurt anyone right?
Wrong again, my friend.
Do you know how hard it is to grow up as an Asian-American in this country? Let me paint you a picture.
From your first day of school, always being singled out as ?the Asian kid.? Cruel kids with their stubby little fingers pulling at the corners of their eyes as they call you Ching Chong, Egg Roll, Chink, a slanty-eyed freak, or just randomly start shouting Asian-esque syllables at you, expecting you to respond: Bing Wong Chee Chow Koo?
It?s just kids bein? kids, right? It?s not like I was getting beat up or anything.
Oh wait.
No. It?s not just ?kids bein? kids? and it?s not cute. It?s not funny.
It?s racist.
When little kids do it, they had to learn it from somewhere. Maybe they learned it from their classmates. Maybe they learned it from their parents. Maybe they saw it on a t-shirt.
Or maybe they saw someone reading names like ?Ho Lee Fuk? and ?Wi Tu Lo? on the evening news.
Here?s the thing about racism against Asians in America: for the most part, it?s just jokes. It?s laughs at our expense. At this point in history, in my lifetime, Asian-Americans are typically not the subject of civil rights violations and infringements. We haven?t had it nearly as bad as many members of both the Black and Hispanic communities have had to face in recent years.
But I?d like to point out: this nation interned its own citizens of Japanese descent just 71 years ago. Oh, and the instances of violence and hate crimes against Sikhs and Hindus since 9/11 because some people are too stupid to tell the difference between ethnic Asians and Arab Muslims.
In American culture, Asian women are fetishized. Asian men are emasculated. There are very few role models for Asian-American children to admire, because you just don?t really see Asian-Americans in positions of leadership, power or privilege.
And worse, Hollywood either gives us yet another ?let?s all laugh at the Asian? trope:
Or reinforces the exoticism and fetishism of Asian women:
Or tells stories subjugating Asians to white heroes:
Or just straight up replaces Asian roles with white actors:
This name prank story has been shared all over the internet and news media. Everyone is quick to point out one of two points: either its shock value or its laugh value. But for all the coverage of this colossal fuck up, no one?s really talking about the bigger issue at hand ? that this is yet another example of mainstreamed racism against Asians. No one?s really talking about just why this isn?t funny or cute or cool.
When a TV news station publishes a list of pranked names that includes ?Sum Ting Wong? and ?Ho Lee Fuk?, they may as well have just written the N-word over and over again on the screen.
Yeah. It?s that racist, folks.
These names reduce diverse and vibrant communities of Asian-Americans to nothing more than bucktoothed, slit-eyed Chinaman-stereotyped imagery ? and the butt of yet another mainstreamed racist joke where ?Asian? is once again the uninspired punchline.
Thing is, we aren?t laughing.
And really?
You shouldn?t be either.
Or in this case, South Korean.
Peace!
http://teamzoll.com/2013/07/why-sum-ting-wong-and-ho-lee-fuk-arent-funny-at-all/
