(With apologies to Calvin Trillin… and since I’m apologizing, to Rosie as well.)
i used to love that brash way about you,
that unapologetic way in which you shook up the view
but ro, old girl, you’re getting tired, and so am i,
of the ching chong ping pong flip flop, please stop!
stop making your hasty accusations,
and making light of pleas for reparations.
i’ll relax when you do
i’ll relax when you do.
well, i’m glad you got the expert opinion of your asian makeup lady
sounds like she really convinced you there, maybe.
your publicist seems to think that asians aren’t as funny as you are tee hee
ex-squeeze me, but have you seen the original kims of comedy? (they’re a riot!)
whatever, girl. we’ve all got to roll with the punches
but i’m not going to forget the people who made fun of my lunches,
and who still do, i might add, telling me that kimchi smells like b.o.
it isn’t just happening on the playground, you know.
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What has always gotten me about racism against Asians is that it’s rarely subtle. Exempting Lost, Asian men aren’t portrayed as sexy or cool on tv and aren’t shown shirtless, while Asian women are usually portrayed as sexy dragon ladies. Meanwhile, Asians are one of our fastest growing minority populations and Asians of all origins (India included) are having larger impacts on our national thought and culture everyday. How is it that a minority group that has a higher rate of college attendance and a higher average income than pretty much anyone else in the country continue to get dissed by everyone?
Helin, for what it’s worth, my hubcap stealing, only blonde haired white woman dating, knife carrying, greasy haired, Spanish Harlem living, happy and always dancing, “me no spik no EENgleesh”, shoeless ghetto blaster owning, put it all on layaway Puerto Rican self can sympathize only too well with the damage other peoples’ insensitivity can cause.
watch survivor and you will see Yul who is so perfect in every way, I’m beginning to think he’s the second coming.
I wasn’t initially too mad at Rosie, but her apology on today’s show was so backpeddling, it really started to offend me.
Is Rosie completely stupid? She didn’t know that ching-chong is an offensive ethnic slur? Really? I’m a white chick from Canada, and hell, I know that! If I called Rosie a fat not nice word meaning lesbian, could I get off by claiming I didn’t know it’s a derogatory word? Probably not, since I wouldn’t have ABC and its lawyers protecting me. What a loser Rosie is, and what a loser this show is. Count me out. I won’t watch it anymore.
I can’t believe she didn;t know talking like that would offend people. Seriously, Rosie!
On an unrelated note: Man, I miss kimchi.
Rosie O’Donnell is a pig. Case closed. If she’s going to get on Kelly Ripa for making homophobic remarks, then argue that her remarks aren’t hurtful to another minority, then she’s a hypocrite. When I was a kid, we had some kids from First Baptist of Visalia, Ca stay at my house. They made fun of this hotdog/croissant concoction that my Mom made. Tricia, one of those Visalian girls, called us “dongers.” A) my mom got the recipe from a can of Pillsbury crescent rolls and B) we aren’t Chinese, but if we were, then what the h3@*? Ignorance is an ugly thing.
What’s particularly bizarre to me is how this supposedly great comedienne could come up with something so pathetically juvenile and think it was funny. Seriously, the last time I heard that gag was in my freshman math class when one of the less mentally able boys decided to try it on our Vietnamese teacher, and even a bunch of fourteen-year-olds could tell it was pretty offensive.
Once again Rosie puts her big ole foot in her big ole mouth. It’s past time she got her mouth stapled shut. That would help her in more ways than one!!!!!!!!!!!!
As a Chinese American born in NY, what upset me most was her non apology. To essentially say that those people offended don’t have a thick enough skin and that we should expect her to slip up again is horsesh– and exposes her as a racist. What if Michael Richards said that he was sorry, but that saying the N-word is “part of his comedy” and he may slip up and say it again in the future and that Al and Jesse would just have to deal with?? It disgusts me that she believes she can not only say this crap, but then be so defiant in not apologizing. Some “Activist” she is.
What an obnoxious ass. She gets on her soapbox about Kelly Ripa for a comment that meant nothing, then blatantly offends Asian Americans? Hypocrite. If someone else made a similar comment about lesbians she would be the first to shoot off her huge, fat mouth about how wrong it is, but since it was her it must be ok. Then she half apologizes by saying it’s how her mind works and she may do it again? As far as I’m concerned she confessed to being a racist. I swear to God if I could choose one celebrity that needs to go away and never be heard from again it would be her. I hope the Asian community makes a huge deal over this and ABC cans her to cover their asses.
I think everyone is missing the point about Rosie. She is so desperate for attention, that she’s taking the controversial route. Sadly, everyone is playing right into her hand. The saying “There’s no such thing as bad publicity,” defines Rosie to a T. She has become pathetic.
Bad publicity isn’t necessarily good publicity. Do you think Michael Richards is going to get another job? What about O.J. Simpson (try as he might, the public killed his book and tv deal)? Hopefully this means Rosie will go away. Rosie is a nasty bigot.
I am also particularly annoyed by Rosie’s so-called apology – “sorry, but i didnt know!”. Why can’t she just say she’s sorry? What’s even more ridiculous is the publicist’s statement – “she’s a comedienne, i hope everyone understands her brand of comedy someday”; it’s like “Gosh, you dumb Asians, can’t you take a joke?”
Why isn’t there a bigger stink about this?
Rock on Helin rock on!!!
I think people are over-reacting and not just about this issue. If you watch the comedy clubs and special performances by Margaret Cho, she is all the time making fun of her mother’s accent and mother’s super-asianisms. But that’s okay because she’s asian. Black performers will always make fun of other black people for being “ghetto,” etc., but that’s okay because they’re black. Lesbian comedians (including Rosie) make fun of lesbian stereotypes. But as soon as someone from outside of a certain group makes fun of a stereotype within that group everyone jumps on the “bigot” bandwagon. Rosie is guilty of being hypocritical and America is guilty of being up-tight. The real racism, to me, lies in the fact that we can make fun of our own minority group, but can’t take it when other’s do it back.
I also can’t believe that ABC or The View hasn’t taken more flack for this. “Ching-chong, ching-chong…” What year are we in again?? I heard it the first time and laughed not because it was funny but because I couldn’t believe that someone was making this “joke” in f-ing 2006 (almost 2007)!!! It’s surreal.
Although I have to say (and I’m Asian-American) that while the Ching-Chong thing is totally offensive, it’s way less shocking and problematic than Michael Richards’ outburst, not for the N word, but for the “50 years ago we’d string you up and stick a fork in your a$$” comment that preceded it. That was just plain scary.
p.s. TO ALLIE:
You’re seriously smoking something. When Margaret Cho makes fun of her super-Asian mother, it’s coming from a complicated place of love and embarrasment and hurt. When Rosie does her ching-chong routine, it’s just not the same thing. As she herself admitted, it’s coming from a place of pure ignorance, and therefore stereotyping. Same thing with African-Americans and the n-word. You’re honestly telling me that when Chris Rock uses it, he’s using it in the same way as Michael Richards? Words aren’t just words; they are used in a particular context, and they have particular histories.
Allie, it’s one thing to make fun of ourselves, as “self depreciative” humor is done in good fun. When Chris Rock makes fun of Black people, Margaret Cho makes fun of Asians or when Jon Leguizamo makes jokes about us spiks, we know these are proud people who don’t hate their race or people, it’s just jokes. When Michael Richards makes “jokes” about lynching, it’s like when a male boss makes “jokes” about PMS and feminine issues. There’s a certain point when “joking” is detrimental and hurts people.
Um…Rosie was obviously making a joke. Michael Richard’s was going on a disgusting rant. Rosie’s joke may not have been funny but, it wasn’t meant to be offensive. Surely you can all tell the difference. Lighten up and accept her explanation. jeez. Oh, and peace people, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah or whatever…..
I unfortunately saw that episode of the view and when rosie went in to her asian invasion my mouth dropped. I just couldn’t believe someone was doing something so offensive. I have a really hard time believing, in fact, i don’t believe that someone wouldn’t realize that mocking a language is offensive. I realize that rosie didn’t mean for that part of her comment to be the joke, she meant it to illustrate how far the danny devito story had gotten. Is she a racist? I have no idea. But her apology, his almost more offensive…”i’m sorry you’re overly sensitive. I’m a loud mouth. Live with it.”
Every one needs to take a chill pill. Rosie joke was innocent. She was just trying to get across the point that a drunk man on daytime television made world news.
Come on people, if we can not laugh at ourselves, then there is something really wrong. Lighten up!!!
Rosie O’Donnell’s overwhelming hypocrisy is just plain disgusting. She became way offended by a comment that Kelly Ripa said that was supposedly homophobic (it clearly was not), and then proceeds to make a blatantly offensive joke mocking the Chinese language. Then her publicist has the nerve to accuse those offended by her joke of not being able to appreciate her humor. Well if you were subject to someone mocking your heritage and the language of your ancestors as a kid, it isn’t funny. It brings back hurtful memories. I really hope Asian and Asian-American groups make a big deal about this in the way Rosie would if a celebrity were to make a truly homophobic remark.
I agree with most of what’s been said here. Rosie’s remarks were childish (seriously, I hadn’t heard crap like that since I was in elementary school), ignorant, and offensive. To claim ignorance as a defense and say you didn’t mean to offend anyone is inexcusable. The fact that she blows a gasket when someone makes a supposedly homophobic remark, but then turns around and makes fun of an entire race of people makes the situation even worse. Rosie isn’t a racist, so let’s be realistic about that. But she is ignorant, and she’s certainly a hypocrite.
What amazes me is that even minorities/persecuted people can’t stop talking about the others. Michael Richards making a racist comment, Isiah Washington making a homophobic remark and now Rosie making another racist remark. All are hypocrites in my opinion. You would think that they would understand what their words do to people, b/c they have dealt with it themselves.
Blah.. blah…blah.. if you don’t like stereotyping, then move to another country.
I cannot tell you the number of times I’ve been discriminated against by asians simply for being latino and thinking I’m going to rob their stupid corner store. How about the black bus drivers when I used to ride public transpo and would give me grief over being 5 cents short but give a black lady behind me an all day transfer when she never paid the fare? How about whites who often spoke about me at the bus stop thinking I didn’t speak English because of my ethnic, dark looks? ( I speak four languages) How about getting pulled over all the time now by white cops because I drive a nice, newer car as if latinos aren’t supposed to have good jobs and drive nice cars? How about the countless asians, blacks, whites, arabs that approach me in supermarkets to ask me where something is as if being latino automatically means I work there?
My point is NOT to say “poor me, I’ve been discriminated against” but simply to say that we ALL DISCRIMINATE and say things that others might find offensive though we might think they’re harmless. If you really want to address serious problems with race relations, please go to your local government and ask why public school programs in african american and minority neighborhoods often have their funding cut in half.
and don’t even get me started on the way minorities are often portrayed in television. You know, not all asians know Kung-Fu, not all black people like fried chicken and are Thugs or Ho’s, not all latinos like mexican food or are only good at cleaning homes, parking cars, or babysitting.. and not all whites are racist, ignorant, air headed idiots..
I think people take too many things personal WITHOUT thinking of how they themselves have stereotyped others.
(are you sure you’ve never done something similar or worse, Helin)?
Maybe Rosie should have gotten a taste of her own venom. She called the make-up artist a Ching then the artist should call her a flacid lesbian WASP. Not very pleasant is it? racisim hurts, and while Rosie just blurted the term out as if she like let helium out of a balloon, what she said was not acceptable.
Carlos, I don’t think anyone here’s trying to say they are somehow magically above stereotyping or themselves being stereotyped. I’m Puerto Rican and get stereotyped by Latinos all the time. Islanders say my spanish is too good to me “one of them American raised Nuyoricans”. In DC, most Latinos are of Central American descent, and assume any light skinned people don’t speak spanish. I’ve heard my own people say some very nasty things about me with the assumption I don’t speak my own language.
Flip that and show my own guilty side? I’ve said some harsh things about white people, many of them overreaching stereotypes. It’s taken me a lot of personal growth to get past that.
The beef with Rosie is that she was calling out other people for their discrimination, but then felt free to discriminate and then non-apologize when called out for it. Yeah we are all racist, but most of us get called on it when we say something racist.
If your life was somehow recorded… can you honestly say that you didn’t make a racist remark about somebody else? You’ve never called somebody fat… or stupid? How about old or said, “That’s gay!” Everybody – EVERYBODY – discriminates. If you tell me you’ve never said a hateful thing about somebody else that can be classified as discrimination, then you’re either a freakin saint or your a big, fat liar.