Group Protests MTV, Comedy Central Shows

Harry Mok
December 30, 2005

There's a fine line between satire and what's offensive when it comes to racial humor. The clips Asian Media Watch are complaining about are feeble attempts at humor that many people will find offensive. I'm almost desensitized to this stuff because it's so common. Take a look at the video links below and you be the judge.

Here's an e-mail I received about Drawn Together:

More Derogotory Depictions from Viacom - Slanted-Eyed Bad Asian Drivers
Asian Media Watch

Yet another offensive portrayal masquerading as entertainment, this time from Viacom/Comedy Central's Drawn Together. Despite being a cartoon, Drawn Together has a Mature Audience (MA) rating and targets young adult viewers. MA rated programs from Comedy Central have included sexually explicit content and profanity.

Watch the video:
http://www.asianmediawatch.net/drawntogether/

ABOUT DRAWN TOGETHER
Drawn Together airs on Comedy Central, part of MTV Networks owned by Viacom -- the same company that brings you reruns of Banzai, Stephen Colbert's "Ching-Chong Ding Dong" caricature, and actors in yellowface in Surreal Life, and the Asian gibberish speaking, Middle Eastern "towelheads", and "F.A.G." puppets of Team America: World Police.

Here's the letter to Sumner:

December 16, 2005

Sumner M. Redstone
Chairman and CEO
Viacom
1515 Broadway
New York, NY 10036

Re: Racially derogatory Viacom programming and lack of employment diversity in Viacom network primetime
On behalf of the readers and supporters of Asian Media Watch, I am writing to express my disgust over yet another racially derogatory broadcast by a Viacom company. On November 8, 2005, Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report (Comedy Central/MTV Networks) made an offensive imitation of a "coolie" -- After requesting a cup of tea, Mr. Colbert acted and spoke in a fake Asian accent, broken English, and vulgar mannerisms. Colbert's revolting behavior promotes racist attitudes towards Americans of Asian/Pacific Islander ancestry.

Quote: [In a mock Asian accent] "I ruv tea. Is so good for you. You so pretty American girl. You come here. You kiss my tea make it all sweet. I no need no sugar when you around. Come on my rickshaw I give you ride to Bangkok [He then sings "ching-chong" music]" - Stephen Colbert, November 8, 2005

Watch The Colbert Report video at:

http://www.asianmediawatch.net/colbert/

In addition to this, Viacom has produced other programs that range from the racially insensitive to outright offensive. A Surreal Life (VH1) episode features an extensive segment with actors in yellowface: They wore makeup with grossly accentuated slanted eyes, and spoke in fake Asian accents and broken English. Hollywood has a history of bias against actors of color. Due to anti-miscegenation laws and the prevailing American attitudes of the time, Hollywood cast Caucasian actors in yellowface to play Asian roles including derogatory roles in films such as Breakfast at Tiffany's. Asian American actors faced hiring discrimination and were relegated to menial and demeaning roles. This episode of Surreal Life is a denigrating reminder of America and Hollywood's disturbing past -- one that that must be acknowledged and that we should be educated on –- And not one to be perpetuated by such Viacom programming.

Watch The Surreal Life video at:

http://www.asianmediawatch.net/surreallife/

Just yesterday, another Comedy Central personality characterized Asian women as prostitutes and stated that (paraphrasing) "if I wanted to see a bunch of Asian women arguing in a catfight, that he would go to his dry cleaner." – Showbiz Show (Comedy Central) Other denigrating Viacom programming includes the negative caricatures in Banzai (Comedy Central), the racist and homophobic portrayals in Team America: World Police (Paramount) targeting children and young adults, and a recent portrayal of an Asian prostitute on Two and a Half Men (CBS).

There is also a disturbing lack of diversity in Viacom primetime television programming. This Fall 2005 season, there are no Asian Pacific American actors in recurring lead roles among CBS's top primetime television programs: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: NY, CSI: Miami, Cold Case, Criminal Minds, NCIS, Two and a Half Men, and Without a Trace. There were no Asian Pacific American contestants on Survivor: Guatemala. There is only one APA actor in a recurring supporting role among these programs: Archie Kao on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Research from the Screen Actors Guild, UCLA, and the National Asian Pacific American Media Coalition shows that Asian American actors are under-represented in motion pictures. Viacom’s CBS primetime is a disturbing example this -- the lack of quality roles for Asian Pacific Americans.

Since the 1800's, Asian Pacific Americans (APAs) have made vital social and economic contributions in the building of this nation. APAs have made important contributions to all facets of American life from the Arts and Sciences, popular culture, to government -- serving from city council members to distinguished members of Congress. Yet APAs have historically been subjected to racially discriminatory public policies and practices. The use of broken English and gibberish in a mock Asian accent, and the use of racial epithets continue today to be used to dehumanize and denigrate Americans of Asian Pacific descent. Such behavior perpetuates and reinforces harmful attitudes towards APAs and has encouraged and manifested itself as harassment and violence. Such behavior is particularly damaging to youth. News organizations recently reported that many Asian Pacific American youth regularly face harassment at school. There have also been numerous reports of harassment and violent incidents across the country, sometimes resulting in death, targeting APA youth and adults with racial bias as a factor.

I hope that Viacom will take substantive remedial action – beyond calls from public relations representatives, attempts to justify such programming as “cutting edge", "satire," or that you "don't mean to offend". There is no place in popular entertainment for such negative portrayals and characterizations given the historical and present day lack of diversity and quality roles for Asian Pacific Americans. A few days after Mr. Colbert’s Nov. 8 broadcast, he intentionally rebroadcast his offensive behavior, immediately following it with an insincere apology, and by airing another offensive segment. In Colbert’s own words, he followed and referred to his own verbal "apology" by saying that "Talk is cheap." I fully agree.

Asian Pacific Americans are one of the fastest growing demographic groups in the United States with rapidly growing consumer power, higher median household income, and higher rates of attaining college degrees than the general population. By under-representing and misrepresenting Asian Pacific Americans, your company is also alienating a key consumer segment while promoting hatred and bigotry.

I urge Viacom to take positive proactive steps to remedy the history of Hollywood prejudice and discrimination, and follow the lead examples of your peers by featuring quality APA roles in shows such as Crossing Jordan, ER, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit on NBC and Lost and Grey’s Anatomy on ABC. Reverse the era of war propaganda films featuring people of Asian descent as "ching-chong" speaking "chinks", "japs", "gooks", and "coolies"; yellowface; blatant racially derogatory portrayals; and discriminatory hiring practices.

Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. I look forward to your timely response and to hearing about the actions that Viacom companies will take in the upcoming television season.

ABOUT VIACOM

Viacom is one of the world's largest media companies with over $20 billion in annual sales. Its companies include:
Television Networks - CBS Broadcasting, United Paramount Network (UPN), Black Entertainment Television (BET), MTV Networks (MTV, VH1, Nickelodean , Country Music Television, Spike TV, Comedy Central, TV Land), Showtime Networks (Showtime, The Movie Channel, FLIX, Sundance)
Television and Film Production - CBS Enterprises, King World Productions, Paramount Pictures, Paramount Network Television, Paramount Home Entertainment
Radio - Infinity Broadcasting
Publishing - Simon & Schuster

Contact information and online e-mail form:

http://www.asianmediawatch.net/colbert/

ABOUT ASIAN MEDIA WATCH

Asian Media Watch (http://www.asianmediawatch.net and .org) is an independent non-profit grassroots organization dedicated to promoting a diverse, fair, and balanced portrayal of Americans of Asian/Pacific Islander descent in the media and entertainment industry.

Contributor: 

Harry Mok

Editor in chief

Editor in Chief Harry Mok wrote about growing up on a Chinese vegetable farm for the second issue of Hyphen and has been a volunteer editor since 2004. As a board member of the San Francisco and New York chapters of the Asian American Journalists Association, Harry has recruited and organized events for student members. He holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was also a graduate student instructor in the Asian American Studies Department.

Comments

Comments

Jeff wrote on Fri, 01/20/2006 - 10:18am
I, to, agree with the commenters about the Colbert Report segment. I found the obvious satire very funny, and showing a 30 second clip of it totally out of context to someone who has never seen his show before does a great injustice.And what's with the "disturbing lack of diversity"? You must realize that by counting the number of people of a specific race on a TV show, you are indeed yourself RACIST. Why don't you look beyond race? If there was an equal number of people from each race on every TV show on air, would that be good? No.
Roshan wrote on Fri, 01/20/2006 - 6:26pm
You must realize that by counting the number of people of a specific race on a TV show, you are indeed yourself RACIST. Why don't you look beyond race? If there was an equal number of people from each race on every TV show on air, would that be good? No.So it would be ok if everyone on TV were white, and we shouldn't say anything about it because we need to look past race? Ignoring race and racism doesn't make racism disappear.
Asian guy from... wrote on Sat, 01/28/2006 - 11:04pm
Every racial group gets laughed about.The Surreal life sketch seems to be poking fun of Asian karate movies. Sorry, but those movies look that bad.Colbert was obnoxious, but I see Irishmen, black men, British men, German... every stereotype joked about.Drawn together was hilarious!How about this? Stop making cheesy karate movies.Learn to laugh at your own stereotypes.
mary wrote on Thu, 10/05/2006 - 1:46am
If you're going to post a "response" here, you shouldn't waste your time (and everyone else's) by leaving an unacceptable, immature, racist comment -- sarcastic or not.Satire is supposed to be humorous -- but when the material crosses the line with racism, the humor gets wrecked with offensiveness. Anyone who is dismissing racist material as a harmless joke needs to learn the disturbing history behind each offensive image.
Anonymous wrote on Wed, 05/03/2006 - 12:19pm
I wish all niggers and asians would die and rot in hell.
SEE wrote on Thu, 05/04/2006 - 1:59am
We Asian adore White People, why would you say such a thing.
TVLandHater wrote on Fri, 12/15/2006 - 2:49am
Carroll O'Connor from "All in the Family" was one of the worst racists I've ever seen! I can't believe all the racist crap that S.O.B. would spew out of his mouth every week! No race was safe: Asians, Africans, Hispanics, Polish, Italians, Germans, etc. At least now that he's dead he'll finally shut the hell up. Still, if we complain to TV Land enough maybe they'll stop showing this bastard's show. Who's with me? Come on, TONE and A QUESTIONER: you gotta agree with me on this, right? I mean, if Colbert's a racist, Carroll O'Connor is no better!
yikey wrote on Fri, 12/30/2005 - 4:29pm
YIKES!
alicia wrote on Fri, 12/30/2005 - 8:25pm
great letter.i can't believe that stuff.abc is much better. during the last commander in chief they aired something i've never seen on mainstream tv or movies. they showed a commercial with an east asian boy about to kiss an asian girl and they aired it twice. this makes sense because abc made a long-term investment in pushing for more diversity at the network (http://www.asian-nation.org/headlines/index.php?p=180)
seng wrote on Sat, 12/31/2005 - 2:16am
I think the point about alienating a growing segment of consumers is an interesting one since it seems to me that most other minority groups (women and Blacks especially) have been controlled for quite some time through their portrayal in media.The key to not alienating any group is to not allow any possibility of that group being portrayed in a fair light, ie minorities will believe their mainstream portrayals to be truth (or worse, ideal) and their own realities to be the anomaly.I was raised with the view that I couldn't let someone else's racism bring down my ability to conduct my business. I think that's a fairly common by-your-own-bootstraps immigrant mentality which makes sense when discrimination is experienced on an immediate, personal level (being called names or passed over for a job), but how does the commonly Asian group-first awareness come into play when mass media is involved? Is it possible to effect political action by using the same invisibility mentality which has kept AA's absent in race debates?
alicia wrote on Sat, 12/31/2005 - 5:41pm
asians should speak up both on concrete issues such as job discrimination and these slippery slope issues.
Tone wrote on Thu, 02/16/2006 - 9:29pm
Cat, Roshan, El, Sigh, Jeff and Asian guy from Indiana... you are all COWARDS (and I am not saying that as a Colbert Report pun). Each of you so badly want to be perceived as free-spirited, open-minded advocates of free speech that you are willing to defend anyone and anything except yourselves. There is a reason why other ethnic groups perceive Asians as being overly passive and weak. It is because for every Asian man or woman who is willing to stand up for themselves, there are a hundred spineless cowards like you who are quicker to turn against Asians that condemn racism than against the actual people who are the source of that racism.
Anonymous wrote on Fri, 02/17/2006 - 10:54am
I'm a part Asian attractive female and I love Drawn Together. I think so-called offensive humor is fine as long as you don't make fun of people like Christopher Reeve or Mrs. Buttafuoco who were injured. Other that that, lighten up!Malini
a questioner wrote on Fri, 02/17/2006 - 11:48am
well, TONE, tell us how you really feel.No, seriously, having checked out both of the 'skits', i can see absolutely NO rhyme or reason for either of them except blind ignorance and idiocy (well I suppose bold-faced racism too). Hopefully both the creative and management 'talent' that came up with and allowed that crap will get canned AND somebody will go and break a foot off in each of the responsible asses. TONE, I'm with you - that stuff is wrong, bad and needs to be stomped out - with gusto.
Cat wrote on Wed, 01/04/2006 - 7:45am
No, seriously, am I the only one here who realizes that the Colbert segment was a joke? It was a parody of Bill O'Reilly's sex scandal, and it never actually happened. If you want action to be taken, you should check your facts first, or you won't be taken seriously.
Roshan wrote on Wed, 01/04/2006 - 12:27pm
I agree Cat...he was making fun of the arrogant talking heads like O'Reilly, and it was really funny satire.
El wrote on Fri, 01/13/2006 - 3:20pm
I completely agree with Cat and Roshan about the Colbert Report segment. It was a joke (hence it airing on comedy central). The whole thing, including the bit about it not being meant to air, was a joke. He pokes fun at people of ALL races, if we can't laugh where are we at?
Sigh wrote on Thu, 01/19/2006 - 1:58pm
You are a very silly organization for complaining about very obvious satire. Perhaps your sense of humor hasn't translated well.