Miley Cyrus: That Achy Breaky Bigot

February 6, 2009

This has got to be my favorite response so far to Miley-Cyrus-does-the-chink-eye. Brought to you by Adriel Luis of Ill-Literacy.

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Melissa Hung

Founding Editor

Melissa Hung is the founding editor of Hyphen. She was the editor in chief for the magazine's first five years and went on to serve in many other leadership roles on the staff and board for more than a decade. She is a writer and freelance journalist. Her essays and reported stories have appeared in NPR, Vogue, Pacific Standard, Longreads, and Catapult, among others. She grew up in Texas, the eldest child of immigrants. Find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Comments

Comments

why is she so stupid? have you read her "apology" yet? i want to strangle her."I've also been told there are some people upset about some pictures taken of me with friends making goofy faces! Well, I'm sorry if those people looked at those pics and took them wrong and out of context! In NO way was I making fun of any ethnicity! I was simply making a goofy face. When did that become newsworthy? It seems someone is trying to make something out of nothing to me. If that would of [sic] been anyone else, it would of been overlooked! I definitely feel like the press is trying to make me out as the new 'BAD GIRL'!"
I think Miley was just not thinking and having fun. She is a regular teenager and I bet you did stupid things. people make her mistakes into a major or deal.
Oh I see, so it's OK to do stupid things so long as you're a teenager having fun? Let's say I'm a teenager and I think it would be fun to set something on fire. The fire burns down my neighbor's house. Oops, sorry. I didn't mean to set the neighbor's house on fire, so I'm not going to take responsibility for my actions.Just because you didn't mean to be racist doesn't mean that you aren't in fact being racist.
here's the thing, she is NOT a regular teenager. if she were, she wouldn't be on the cover of vanity fair and have sold out concerts where underage girls screen her name. she is a celebrity, and celebs are in the public eye whether she likes it or not. sure, she can do stupid things, but it does not justify what she did. bottom line is, she was not making a "goofy" face as she likes to call it. she was clearly making fun of a certain type of facial feature, if you will. this is a big deal because the thousands of screaming underage girls are going to look at photos like these and say, oh if miley is making a "goofy" face like this, then i can too.being a celebrity comes with responsibilities. it sucks that she became one at such a young age, but hey, this is the path she chose. the least she can do is realize that she made a mistake and apologize, SINCERELY AND GENUINELY, instead of making it sound like the whole world is against her. p-lease.
She is a regular teenage Dennis, She might be a celebrity and she might get to do things that we don't, but she still a teenage. She has to go to school, she has a period, she still gets grounded and Someday she will have to get a house, buy food, and pay taxes.
For some reason, I've never liked her. Now I know my intuition was right.
she also gets to have many cars, coach bags, chanel purses, and whatever the hell that other "regular" teenage kids don't get. yes she gets to buy a house, but more like a mansion with 52 rooms.as for going to school, i don't think so. because i think schools would teach you that doing the ching-chong face is not nice, and that it's not called the "goofy" face.seriously ruth? deep down inside, you really think she's a "normal" teenager?ok fine. so what if she is huh? does that make everything ok and apologies not necessary?
I'd have to agree with Dennis. Though she is just a teenager, she is a role model to girls. To make a racist gesture, then just dismiss it as "goofy" and oh-sorry-IF-i-offended-you-but-you-shouldn't-be-offended makes sends a message that it's OK to make fun of other people's racial features.What I want to know is where the hell are her parents? They are even more responsible.
I Do understand that she dose get things that I would love to have,`Dennis, but I bet even if she wasn't a superstar, she would still make the face. Oh, and if you wanted to know my school doesn't even care if you make faces or say mean things. All they do is teach the regular math, reading more.
Miley/Hannah is a normal teenager alright.I am sure that we all know teenagers who are multimillionaires before the age of 21, a media "tween" idols with global brand recognition, and are the progeny of country music stars.
Ruth, you don't seem to get it. No one here is disputing whether or not Miley would make that gesture based on her celebrity. You're right, she would probably still make that racist gesture if she were not a superstar.What we're saying is that the girl needs to apologize big time. What she did was not just "goofy." It's racist. It's making fun of people based on race. And as a as a role model to girls, as the star of a children's show, she needs to apologize to set a good example, and to show other people that it's not OK to make racist and mean gestures. Instead, she's being defensive and making herself out to be some kind of victim. Please.I'm sorry your school doesn't teach you some of these things. It's too bad.
Anna, you also don't seem to get what I'm saying. Your right that she did a racist thing. But she the only one who is being forced to apologize. If some other person made that face it's "ok." It's not ok for any one to make the face and the people who do should apologize but They don't.She is a role model for many kids and teenager, but everyone makes mistakes in life and that's part of life. You learn from your mistakes. Nobody is perfect and if they were they'd be boring.It's not like everyone listens to miley.
I would hope that anyone who made that gesture would make an apology, no matter who they are. Sadly, most people, like Miley, here, don't seem to get it's a racist gesture, and one that should be apologized for.I can understand that she's a young person who made a mistake. But instead of taking responsibility for it she got all defensive and tried to pay the victim card. Her "apologies" were weak.Like boo-hoo, the media is out to get me. If she had said, "you know what, I made a mistake. I didn't realize what my friends and I were doing was offensive at the time, but I have now learned that it's not OK," this would send the right message, and this thing would blow over. Instead she continues to justify what she did.
Anna, your right about most of your comments, but still people want to hear her apologize because it would be an interesting topic. They want to make miley seem that she is a bad person just because she did not apologize for one thing.I don't think she had to apologize for the Vanity Fair picture. It was artist and it only showed her back, but she had to.The media does want her. She is sixteen and a celebrity. They tried to find out how to make miley look like dump. People like them kind of stories.