As many of you may have heard, Fox News is in hot water for its Chinatown segment that has been called blatantly racist towards Asians. I, of course, heard about the massive backlash against Jesse Watters, the correspondant of the segment, and with some trepidation I clicked on the link to the segment.
I didn't get through a minute before I was fighting the urge to throw my laptop across the room.
To summarize, Jesse Watters thought it a marvelous idea to traipse into Chinatown after the presidential debate and question its residents on their thoughts and opinions on the matter. Watters's and Fox News's reason for this journey to Chinatown? Because China had been mentioned 12 times in the debate, and they wanted to see what Chinese people's opinions were on this. Fox News reveals its ignorance and racism within the first ten seconds of the video, folks: in case you weren't aware, Chinatown is nothing like China. As Ronny Chieng, a stand-up comedian and senior media correspondent, said so brilliantly- sending someone to Chinatown to gauge China's reactions to American politics is like sending someone to Taco Bell for Mexico's opinions.
It's stupid. Completely, utterly ridiculous.
But wait, that's not all. The segment is interspersed with stereotypical clips from films that blatantly mock the very people Watters is supposedly interviewing - I say "supposedly" because he's clearly not interested in gathering their opinions, he's interested in making fun of Chinatown residents for being unable to speak English fluently or for not knowing American politics as well as Americans. For example, Watters asks a man who he'd vote for and when the man replies "Clinton's wife," Watters presses him to provide the first name of the woman. When the man, in broken English, replies with an apologetic smile that he forgot, the video cuts to a clip of a man saying disgustedly, "Snap out of it!"
Really, Fox News? Mocking people for speaking broken English is your definition of class and humor? Newsflash, it's really not. Take it from someone who's learned English as a second language: learning a new language, in an entirely different culture, is something to commend, not mock. I know so many people whose English is broken, awkward, but it's something to admire, not look down upon.
Why?
Well, because many of them uprooted their lives in countries and cultures they're familiar with, places where they have family and friends and connections, to settle in a foreign country in the hopes of obtaining a brilliant future. These people are extraordinarily brave, Fox News, these people had the courage to leave the comforts of familiarity behind, and mocking of them isn't funny. It's not classy. It's disgusting and cheap, and you'd do well to learn some respect. You don't understand the sacrifices these people make, sacrifices that are spat on by ignorant cowards like you. How dare you?
If you want to protest that I don't know what I'm speaking about, fine, go ahead. I'll enjoy grinding you into the ground with some of my experiences. Like the time my family could only wait in America, clinging to the phone with helpless anxiety as my grandparents were both diagnosed with cancer multiple times, never knowing if they were going to relapse or get better, unable to fly to Korea because I had school to think of, my mother had to look after me, and my father had work. Or the time my grandfather did succumb to illness and my mother and I couldn't attend his funeral because plane tickets are expensive and we had our responsibilities. Or how I returned to Korea for a month this summer, the first time in ten years, and realized that my younger cousins had no memory of me, even if I remembered cuddling and playing with them as toddlers. Or how, that same month, I was told that my grandfather forgot who I was near the end of his life.
Yeah. Sacrifices. And mine aren't the worst ones to have been made, I assure you.
But I digress. Let's go back to the segment: Watters questions an elderly Asian woman who doesn't seem to understand English, and answers his question with silence and a polite smile. The video then cuts to a clip of a woman screaming "Speak, speak! Why don't you speak!?"
Offensive doesn't even begin to describe what he's done. There are so many more moments in this segment that made me want to scream or smash something, but I think I've made my point fairly well. The point, if you've somehow missed it, is that Fox News is blatantly racist and this time, their target is Asians.
It's awful. It's outrageous. It's infuriating.
Everyone knows Fox News is worth less than dirt, though. The real issue is, perhaps, the way racism against Asians seems to glide under the public radar. Racism against blacks is entirely valid, no doubt about that, but it's not just African Americans who suffer. Native Americans and Asians are also victims, and it's about time America worked to fix that.
If there's any good that came from this repugnant Chinatown segment, it's that the nation's attention has been drawn to racism against Asians. I don't know how long this interest will last, but I think we should make the most of this outrage while it lasts, before it fades into obscurity like Vincent Chin did over thirty years ago.
And if you don't know who Vincent Chin is, well - look him up. It'll be worth your time.
