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Alerts: Princeton Newspaper Satire Mocks Asian Americans
Jeff Yang: "The Daily Princetonian's Rosie/Carolla Defense"
By Kerwin Berk, past AAJA member, San Francisco Bay Area Chapter
(January 23, 2007) -- In regards to the Princeton newspaper column that has upset Asian-American student groups -- and Asian-Americans everywhere for that matter -- I can say only one thing: Me no rike it either.
I found that the satire fell about as flat as my opening line, the jokes were hackneyed and the humor wasn't that funny (except maybe for that Kung Pao Province line. I once told an unsuspecting hakujin editor that my family was from the Sashimi Prefecture in Japan after he couldn't quite make the mental connection that they were from San Francisco.)
But was the column racist? And should the AA kids who participated in shaping it be lumped in with Rosie O'Donnell and Adam Carolla? Note: the column appeared in a joke edition of the school's paper and was written in part and approved as a whole by a number of Asian-Americans on staff.
Well, if an Asian-American comedian gets up on stage and makes a "me soooo horneee" joke I'll laugh if it's funny and wince if it's not. If a non-Asian comedian gets up on stage and makes the same joke, it had better be satirical or have a valid social statement a la Lenny Bruce's "are there any niggers in the audience tonight?" Remember, William Hung? I found the "step 'n' fetch it" coolie quality of his "she bangs" routine disturbing but most Asian-Americans found it pretty funny, so I just figure my sensitivity barometer was a little askew.
I can't say I agree with what the Princeton Asian-Americans wrote or even with the approach they took. I haven't talked with the kids directly so I can't even say I'd defend them. What I will defend is their right to make an Asian joke. This is a free country -- which isn't to say that they are exempt from the consequences of their actions. You can't shout "fire" in a crowded theater and expect to come out smelling like a lotus. Anytime you put something in the public forum -- satirical or not -- you are obligated to deal with the criticism.
But frankly, I find much of the criticism about this column rooted in 1995 thinking. They wrote failed satire that wasn't funny and now they're not showing the proper contrition. Damn, those college kids.
Do you think it's just possible that we -- we being 30-plus Asian-Americans who are fat and somewhat happy -- could just possibly have lost touch with what kids in their 20s and younger find funny and offensive? I admit, I don't get all of the rap music, I don't get the tattoos and piercings, I don't get the hip-hugging jeans ... um, wait, maybe I do get those. The point is, things have changed and our barometer for what is racist and insensitive may be in need of a corresponding shift. Cool isn't cool, and racist may not be racist anymore.
I was riding a Muni bus the other day through San Francisco's Western Addition -- it's a predominantly black but racially mixed neighborhood. It was a typical Muni scene -- some kids playing gangsta' in the back and some white yups heading through their po' neighborhood back to Pac Heights. Then some kid yells "HEY NIGGAH" out the bus window to some friend on the street. It didn't really surprise me until I looked around and saw that the kid was Asian-American, and the kid he was yelling to was Asian-American. Now, I fully expected a fight to break out, but nothing happened -- the Asian-American kids were laughing, the Latino kids were laughing, the black kids were laughing. I even started laughing about two blocks later, after realizing how out of touch I had become. Now before I start singing kumbaya, I have to say the white yups seemed pretty upset.
To the same point, my parents were in town recently, and I took them to dinner at an upscale Vietnamese restaurant. The place ended up being decked out like a French plantation circa 1900, complete with wall-size pictures of Vietnamese people working in the rice fields. Of course, I realize I've booked us a table at a white folks' Asian restaurant. I began squirming in my chair and made a note to my parents about the offensive nature of the decor. They gave me a "what the hell are you babbling about" look.
My folks just didn't get it what I considered racist. Just like I didn't get the Asian-American kids on the bus yelling "niggah." And just like we might not be getting the Asian-American kids at Princeton.
To lump the AA kids at Princeton in with Rosie/Carolla is categorically unfair and the height of absurdity. The circumstances are mangoes and papayas. Save the venom for the Rosie/Carollas of the world, who defend their racist humor by saying it's satire or parody when it clearly isn't, and then blame those who their jokes denigrate for being too sensitive. Of course, with that said -- and at the risk of being called a "race traitor" -- maybe we are being too sensitive about this one.
Ultimately, the Princeton column isn't the place to fight the battle, the place to draw the line in the sand. That was with Rosie, and the sampan has long sailed. We didn't as Asian-Americans rise up and stop watching ABC, we didn't call for a boycott of advertisers on "The View," we didn't hold journalist Barbara Walters accountable. At best we were paper dragons, firing off a few e-mails full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
About Fresh View
The views expressed in this column are solely those of the individual and do not necessarily reflect those of AAJA. For consideration as the next columnist, AAJA members are invited to e-mail mailto:mediawatch@aaja.org.