In this month's PopWatch segment, Kushlani takes on racism in a recent Chevy ad and discusses the latest news about Lela Lee's Angry Little Girls comic strip and Houston Rockets point guard Jeremy Lin.
Post-show edit from Kushlani: Someone just asked me why "ching chong" and "Fu Manchu" are actually racist and not just dumb and dated ways to describe Chinese people. In a nutshell, both terms have been used for a century or so to stereotype people of Chinese descent as incomprehensible, strange and un-American. "Ching chong" is nothing less than a racist taunt used to humiliate and marginalize people of Chinese and other East and Southeast Asian heritage. It's no joke, and that's all there is to it. Thanks for listening!
PopWatch is a regular APA Compass feature on representations of Asian Pacific Americans in the mass media and pop culture.
- KBOO