The Oscars are over and the big news is that Leonardo DiCaprio finally won! The Internet has stopped revolving for the moment, well for the most part. One thing in particular seems to be the bigger story among people and that is the jokes used by Chris Rock and Sacha Baron Cohen about Asian Americans. Many sites and papers, and pretty much any comment section -- but that's nothing new -- are up in arms about the situation. The criticism says that these jokes were in bad taste and offensive to entire culture of Asian American people. They have accused these comedians of being bigoted racists. But, as we examine closer, what we see is a shaming of a planned out satirical joke in order to bring about even bigger cultural divide in the Oscars; in essence, many minorities are subject to racial stereotyping by Hollywood. Racial profiling, stereotyping and racism exist in many aspects of American culture. Recently, the question of police brutality of African Americans -- that has been going on for decades -- is beginning to get recognized. Other atrocities such as this exist. Leading up to the Oscars, there were protests against oppression of black voices not only in Hollywood, but across America. Beyoncé was recently criticized for dressing as a Black Panther at the Super Bowl. The argument most often used is that you cannot suppress their voices, especially if you don't understand their intent. We must allow voices to be heard in order to discuss the issues that exist. Not everyone will agree with Rock and Cohen, but the point was not to be putting down Asian Culture, but in fact, raise them up from where they are in America today.

Rock made a joke about Asian Americans and Jewish Americans as being good at math and brought out three young children. Rock then said: "If anybody is upset about that joke, just tweet about it on your phone, which was also made by these kids." This created an outpouring of rage and many celebrities quickly took to Twitter to slam him for it. Later however, Cohen made another joke using Asian Americans implying typical stereotypes used against their culture: "How come there is no Oscar for those hard working little yellow people with tiny dongs... you know? Minions." This sparked even more anger from people. The Internet is outraged and quick to judge these jokes at face value; as racist jokes meant to make fun of Asian Americans. But, a problem with this jump to conclusion, is that we start to ignore the real impact these jokes made.

Let's start with Rock's joke. He called these children on stage, saying they were “PricewaterhouseCoopers” accountants. When we dive into PricewaterhouseCooper, the accounting firm, you will find that they count the votes for the Oscars. This company has not only been sued multiple times for racial discrimination, but also had a Supreme Court case, Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, 490 U.S. 228 (1989), in which it was found guilty of sexual discrimination in the firing of a female employee. Making these accountants Asian American and Jewish is a punch at the longstanding discrimination claims against the company, who is now counting votes for a very white Oscars. The end of the joke is about these kids making the very phones the people would use to complain, giving credence that he was aware that people would be offended, but also criticizing the horrible child labor laws that exist in Asian countries. This joke was much more complex than what people claim to be a simple, blatantly racist joke.

The next joke on this subject matter was from Cohen. Breaking down this joke as well, points out the clear satirical criticism that Cohen is using. The first point to prove this is the very character by which Cohen came to the Oscars as: Ali G. This character was created by Cohen in contention against the white British suburban males stealing and bastardizing the reggae Jamaican culture that exists in the United Kingdom. This character is literally a criticism of white culture and the many Twitter responses to his joke were about him being racist. Next, the comment he made itself, was poking at the stereotype of small sexual organs by Asian males. The beginning of his statement was purely of the criticism that Asian Americans are even more discriminated against than African Americans at the Oscars: "How come there is no Oscar for those hard working little yellow people..." Less than 1 percent of the Oscars nominations and wins has gone to Asian Americans, while around 10 percent is made up of African Americans. Actresses like Emma Stone in the movie "Aloha," are given roles of Asian American characters. The question may be still lingering then is "Why did Cohen use the offensive language of skin color and stereotypical jokes?" This is answered simply by the character of Ali G. That is the exact way the white British suburban kids would talk. He is showing how offensive, ignorant and misconstrued this group of youth can be. Sacha was not being racist, but in fact fighting against the racist culture not just in the Oscars but in the world.

Another key to Ali G's joke is the use of the word minion. It seems that minions are exactly what Hollywood is making Asian Americans. To Hollywood, Asians are nothing more than minions there to do all of their important tasks, and yet get none of the credit for it at the Oscars. Only two Asian actors and one Asian actress have ever been nominated for best actor or actress. And less than 1 percent of nominations of all time, have ever been Asian, even though they make up a good portion of the industry. For Hollywood, it seems, they would rather not cast them as actors and actresses in their films. In "Avatar: The Last Airbender," the lead heroes were cast by all white actors and actresses, even though the characters are originally all Asian, and yet the villains all remained Asian. In "Aloha," like I said before, Emma Stone was cast as Allison Ng, a half Asian/Hawaiian female. In "Martian," the white actress Mackenzie Davis was cast in the role of Mindy Park, a Korean female, and the African American actor Chiwetel Ejiofor was cast as Dr. Vincent Kapoor, a male of Indian and Hindu decent. These types of casting send a message to Asian culture; that they are nothing more than minions for Hollywood.

Both of these actors and comedians are being blasted for the language and jokes they use. We as a society must not be so quick to jump to judgement and accuse them of racism. This accusation-making makes us as human beings no better than the horrible racist culture that exists in America and the world. We must not be so quick to judgement as a culture, and instead open up an intellectual discussion about the issues these comedians are bringing up. These comedians are the last bastions of freedom of speech that exist in the world, and instead of bullying them into a false representation of who they are, we should open our ears as a culture and listen. When we listen instead of accuse, only then can we truly change the racist culture that exists, not only in the Oscars, but in the world.