I started writing a little bit about this topic on Tumblr, but since I’ve been thinking about it all day and it’s been bugging me ever since, I’ve decided to make my grand re-entrance to my blog about the whole Suey Park/Huffington Post debacle. If you happen to read both, which is highly improbable given my follower number to be about the same as a public school 5th grade classroom, you’ll see many parallels. Hopefully the ones here will be more effective at getting my view across.
Oohhkay. Let me preface this post with a (very) short sumpin’ sumpin’ ’bout myself. I’m half-Chinese and half-(for all intents and purposes) white. Therefore I feel like I have the power to talk about this and feel fairly balanced in my opinion. However, because I still have whiteness in me, Suey might feel like I can only half relate to her situation, if at all. Even so, I don’t really think that fact matters a whole gosh darn diddly much.
I have added the video to this post, and if you can watch the whole thing in one go and stay in one comfortable position, I applaud you. I will say that I can see where she’s coming from, since I do think some people think Asians are primo joke material. Let’s face it, all of those “herro” and “flied lice” and “open your eyes” jokes got old years ago, but people still tend to milk it for all it’s worth. Trust me on this, they’re just as bad as the “get back in the kitchen and make me a sammich” jokes that are targeted at women. (Please stop, you’ll save yourself so much regret.)
That being said, I am appalled at the amount of people who are 100% supporting Suey’s argument. I think she was being incredibly hypocritical and racist. Not to mention that it seems like she doesn’t fully understand the concept of satire, but we’ll save that for another day. In her biting remarks about “white liberals” and “white men” who feel they are privileged enough to make jokes about other races, isn’t she doing the same? Reverse racism is still racism, hence the “racism” part that makes up 50% of the phrase reverse racism.
Park pretty much explicitly told Zepp that since he is a white man, he can’t put himself into a minority’s shoes. As if growing up in all of his white man-ness has propelled an orb of ignorance around him like Jake Gyllenhaal in “Bubble Boy”. No, as a white man, he can only understand complete privilege and live in a world where every opportunity lands at his feet. White man only live in world of white. Brain cannot compute empathy. Not enough data for understanding others. Must join forces with every single white man in world and cleanse world of impurities.
And if Park was white and saying that to an Asian Zepp? Better break out your big, red RACIST stamp. Let’s not forget that she believes every single white man in the world “definitely” feels this way, not just Colbert and his band of white liberal cronies.
Furthermore, Park feels like she can relate to the plight of the modern-day Native American? More than any white person could POSSIBLY relate to a person of color? It sounds like she’s actually widening the gap between races instead of bringing them closer together.
Finally, as Zepp described her on Twitter, she’s a “professional umbrage-taker.” Instead of raising more awareness for the problem the tweet was referring to, she gets offended and calls for the destruction of the outlet that was originally raising awareness (but like, put some context into your tweets next time, @ColbertReport.) I don’t know if she fully recognizes satire (I mean, she says she’s a writer, so ah-bviously she gets it,) or not, but I get the feeling she took the tweet out of context and dug herself into a really deep hole where she has to continue this persona lest people think of her as a human who makes mistakes. The writer of the tweet doesn’t think poorly of Asians. The writer is trying to show the ridiculousness of the situation in terms that he or she thinks is more relatable and common to Americans.
I guess in shorter terms, I’m really sick and annoyed by all of these “social justice warriors” who think they can end racism by spewing hatred towards another race. I read a tumblr caption saying something along the lines of “God, I really hate white men”. I’m just really dumbfounded. I think Suey has very valid points regarding Asian identity in America; she just didn’t translate them very well and that really takes a toll on your credibility.
I don’t really know what to expect when it comes to feedback for this post, all I ask is to just be conscientious and courteous and to remember that this is an opinion.
Noelle well well 