Lately, Asian-American blogosphere was in flames over the indiscretion and controversy arising from a young 20-year old UC Berkeley Asian-American female student, Lisa Chan, an 20-year old student-cum actress-aspirant who played the "yellow girl" in straw hat in a rice paddy in a racist political informercial, which got beamed big-time in Michigan in Superbowl Sunday.
The GOP Candidate Peter Hoekstra ad, targeting Michigan incumbent senator Debbie Stebenow, true, is as racist and repugnant a low, vicious, mean-spirited, ugly China-bashing and Chinese demonization piece of venom, using our "yellow girl," Lisa Chan, a UC Berkeley psychology major, from Daly City, as prop, pictured in a racist caricaturizing clip of a Chinese peasant girl... riding a bicycle in a rice paddy, bad-mouthing America.. and the outsourcing of American jobs, and China and Chinese taking over and arrogantly "sticking into" the poor unemployed working Johnnys and Janes of America.... It culminates with an attack on Michigan incumbent Democratic Senator Stabenow, ridiculing her as a Senator"Spenditnow."
YouTube this campaign clip here and you be the judge:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrbdXUWryXk
Michigan, as we all know, is currently the heartland of America's manufacturing base, specifically the auto industry. And it is in deep turmoil by the economic mess now swirling all across America's manufacturing heartland.
20 years ago.... in 1992, we experienced the same racist scapegoating in Michigan,then as now distressed by joblessless and a besieged state suffering from outsourcing and the hollowing of manufacting jobs. And in that era, Vincent Chin, a Chinese-American youth, from Detroit, was the victim behind a racist baseball lynching by two white supremacist auto-workers from Detroit, who mistook him for Japanese, and the cause of their woes as autoworkers being threatened by Japanese car imported en masse to America.
Fast forward 20 years later, a candidate for office, Hoesktra, a GOP right-wing conservative candidate from Holland originally, a Euro-immigrant who aspired to capture incumbent Senator Stebonow's seat, the latter a liberal Democrat.... went racist-demonizing, and bashed China.
Our sis, Lisa Chan, naive at 20, from the West Coast, was used as the "actress," the tool of racist caricaturizing and demeaning scapegoat.
Lo.... the backlash was vicious and ugly.
First and on the outset... let me very clear about this... I am not going to defend Lisa Chan and her ill-advised indiscretion, naivite, and even stupidity of succumbing to her "30 seconds" of informercial fame in a political attack ad, which is vicious, ugly and racist.
But having said that, I am also going to cut her some slack, and will vigorously dissent against those among our fellow-Asian-American bros and sistas who have gone amuck and attack this 20-year sis with "sell-out" or any number of invectives.
Jeff Yang, an exceptional gifted writer and journalist, from the East Coast, today a Wall Street Journal columnist, has followed the story, and clearly felt offended and aggrieved by what Lisa Chan did. Understandable. Accepted. And well-taken.
But to Bro Jeff...I say... "cut our Sis some slack, Bro Jeff..."
She may have made a bad mistake... she is 20 years old.... perhaps fresh off the stick, somewhat naive, and green behind the ears. But put it in context, and give some perspective, bro. This may have been done in a naive and misguided desire to break out and make it to Hollywood, and all the aspirational dream of "belonging" and being part of American celebrity pop culture.
I am from California. And I know what it is like for little Sis Lisa Chan, a student trying to make her way through college in UC -- California's distressed institution of higher learning.... now threatened by privatization, increasingly crushing our young students with student debt overload, over-packed class-rooms.... Add to this is a bleak jobs market out there for many of our younger college generation.
Lisa Chan, you gotta admit, is no Harvard preppie. She is not a super-achiever, academically or otherwise... and she does not have the privilege of being among the few "chosen" super-achieving Asian-American kids who have the opportunity of availing themselves of an Ivy League elite education. No Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford unlike many of our privileged Asian And Asian American kids with pedigree, and the right smarts and backgrounds. She is no "Legatee," nor part of that Legacy admits that Harvard, Yale, and Princeton are so well-known and well-endowed for. And she does not have the footprints of super GPAs and SATs scores.
Lisa Chan, I can almost conjecture, myself being from "lumpen" immigrant roots, is on the public school and public university track. Just a kid trying to break out and achieve her "American Dream" like many of us, in a world dominated by white folks.
And given California's increasingly bleak economic and social-fiscal climate... it is tough and rough out there for our Lisa Chan's generation. And for many young Asian-American kids of her background.
Many of our fellow Asian and Asian-American bros and sistas are now caught between a rock and a hard wall.
Here at home in America, we are being "donged" as invisible, a "perpetual foreigners," as second-class citizens, and worse, as caricaturized "little demons," weaklings, nerdy, the yellow bastard and dog.
Over there in Asia-Pacific, we are also being viewed as "less than" the homeland Asians... who are now soaring with a boom economy, flushed with an upswing, and carry the image of well-being which is supra-and-super than the native-born Asian-Americans. Neither here nor there, this is not a good place to be.
Just look at the latest trends in school admissibilty.... Foreign students from Asia-Pacific are now "hot" commodities --- and the adverse impact of this proclivity to raise tuition and go for the money, has affected native-born Asian-Americans from "lumpen" backgrounds, unlike those blessed with trust funds,from pedigree, and with affluence and smarts to make it to the Ivy League schools. And unlike our yellow preppies going to elite Ivy League elite schools, she, like many who attend public colleges and universities, such as UC, are now finding themselves caught in the vortex of intense competition to enroll in colleges of their choice, public or private. And worse, many have been compelled to find part-time work off-school hours to make tuition and pay rent.
Lisa Chan is no Harvard preppie... and I am sure she is just trying to make her way in this world.... as rough and tough it is now in California... trying to break out and perhaps try to become an actress.
But she is no Gedde Watanabe, our "Long Duk Dong" actor who sold Asian-America down the river for his role in "Sixteen Candles."
In Lisa Chan's case... it may be naivite.... it may be indiscretion... it may be stupidity....
But unlike Gedde Watanabe, the damage done was not as vicious,pernicious mean-spirited, and lasting. This was clearly a political attack ad, but not Hollywood pop culture and its persistent racial caricaturizing which demeans Asians and Asian-Americans head-on.
Many of our "Dongers" who have been racially demeaned and caricaturized know what it had been and continues to be like.
And understandably, Lisa Wong's naivite encaptulates similar angst and anxiety about being "donged."
But cut our naive 20-year old sis from Daly City some slack, Bro Jeff.
She is no Harvard Preppie... she may not be as smart and polished and as foreseeably prescient as you.
Shalom. Peace. We are in this boat together.
The enemy is not within us.... It is out there... against the ruling class of white supremacists... the Hoekstras, the jerks from Hollywood pop culture.... the rascals like John Hughes of "Sixteen Candles." Those, bro Jeff, are our "real enemies."
Can we please shoot straight next time?
Check out "Long Duk Dong" and what a devastating racist stereotype this 1984 caricature creep and jerk, Peter Hoesktra has caused among an entire generation of Asian-American kids, who all all damaged by this Hollywood racism.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88591800
Finally, Lisa Chan has publicly apologized and expressed contrition and remorse. Isn't this good enough. Can this not be a teachable moment instead of letting it spiral out of control?
Can we not forgive and cut Sis Lisa Chan some slack for her naivite, Bro Jeff?
http://www.clutchmagonline.com/2012/02/actress-from-racist-gop-ad-apologizes-calls-it-absolutely-a-mistake/
