Interesting that Rosie O’Donnell should downplay and defend her lame “ching-chong” schtick on The View as “just comedy, folks,” after accusing Kelly Ripa of homophobia.
In response to readers who question her reasons for imitating/mocking the Chinese, Rosie replies on her blog:
i am irish
i do an irish accent – make drunk jokes – stgerotypes
this is comedyi do many accents
and probably will continue tomy mom in law impression offends some southerners
what can u doi come in peace
and
it was not my intent to mock
just to say how odd it is
that danny drunk
was news all over the world
even in chinait was not meant to mock
and
the joke was about the danny devito drunk news
making headines all over the world
including china
just comedy folks
no intent 2 harmpeace
Come on now. Does anyone seriously believe that “ching-chong-ching-chong” is an accent? When one resorts to ching-chongisms as a representation of an Asian language, clearly mocking the sound of that language, perhaps one would be wise to just admit to the insensitive and racist mistake and apologize, rather than digging oneself deeper in to a hole by attempting to pass off said mistake as “comedy.”
Puh-LEEZE. You tryin’ to tell me that resorting to what 6-year-old redneck kids do on the playground when they yell, “Ching chong! Ching chong! Go back to China, chink!” at the Asian kid is harmless comedy? Is she gonna pay the first-grade bully for borrowing from that line?
“I didn’t mean to,” and “I didn’t intend to” don’t cancel out the impact of the action. It was a mockery. It was racist. It offended. Makes me wonder what The View ex-host Lisa Ling would have said.
Of course O’Donnell’s publicist apparently thinks we Asians just don’t understand Rosie’s sense of, uh, humor. “She’s a comedian in addition to being a talk show co-host,” Cindi Berger says. “I certainly hope that one day they will be able to grasp her humor.” (Love the obligatory “they” that Ms. Berger had to toss in there.)
Ah yes. That must be it. Just having gotten off the boat and all, I aspire to one day grasp such sophisticated American comedy.
Whatev. I’m not holding my breath for a public apology from Rosie O’Donnell. It’s plain to see that she is not making the connection between the kind of behavior she condemns in others as homophobia, and the clearly spoken racist mockery that she herself delivered straight into the camera. Way to go, Ro.
the “joke” wasn’t funny
with or without
the racist mimicry
that you call
an accent.
comedy.
not intended to harm.
but you see,
we’re not laughing.
apparantly
rosie doesn’t know how
2 write complete
sentences
or use punctuation
unfunny
hypocrite
probably racist
bad writer
peace
Right fucking on, Ji-In! It’s funny but things like Michael Richards ugly rant gets national attention and sparks race forums, yet when people very blatantly put down Asians with those goddamn ching-chong sounds it’s all in good fun.
I find it very hard to believe that Rosie and other ignorant assholes air this shit on public television (or the radio) and not think of the aftermath. Did she really think that Asian Americans would find this amusing? Using the lame excuse that it’s all just entertainment, lighten is the biggest load of bullshit. And if we don’t make a fuss over it, it’ll just continue.
And for those who say get over it, try having the “Hiii-Yaaaa”s or that stupid ass unintelligible ching chong gibberish thrown at you whenever you’re out in public all the fucking time. I also say, to the APIA’s out there, the next time someone does that to you, go ape shit on them. Make a scene and call them out for being the assholes they are. It’s not funny and it’s time it stopped.
I totally, totally agree, Ji-In. It is NOT an accent! I have to say I was a big Rosie fan and this has been really disheartening. Sigh.
And Jaye (and Ji-In) I just recently called out another racist ass on his shit. (on my blog and also an Racialicious) The ensuing, um, conversation, has been enlighening. And depressing.
God save us from comedians who think that anything they say, when their mouth is flapping, is funny, and make it a point to say racist shit, and dare the audience to laugh or be not-cool.
I was following her blog for awhile and finally concluded that she is not very bright. People actually ask her for advice and she says “follow your heart.” Ahhh thank you Mistress. But I think I will follow my butt instead.
There was a time when I admired her for being out, but in retrospect I realize that she was basically forced out after fighting for her right to stay in the closet for years, then she became a poster queer, overnight. She’s basically a twit who gets way too much attention.
PS I love your holiday banner!
I am in full agreement with you, Ji-in (and Jaye) that Rosie’s behavior should not be tolerated and that there should be more serious repercussions—at least, I think people should stop supporting her show and anything else she tries to sell. From my blog I directed people to http://www.reppropriate.com, where Jenn has posted various letters of protest by different groups, as well as links to the story by a number of news organizations.
Rosie lost my respect when I found out that she basically forced her partner to wean their baby because she was jealous. Bah.
ha ha ha, Dasha!
Hey, Rosie is no different than all the others – her “apology” is actually another slam aimed at those who call her on her racism. Just like that *ahem* comedian Susan saw who made the awful James Kim – comment? – I can’t call it a joke, I guess slam is a better description – disguised as a joke.
It’s OUR fault that we’re just not able to see how *funny* they are? Oh, we’re just not able to get that kind of humor? Their apologies always say they’re sorry we’re offended, not that they’re sorry they said something offensive.
Having to resort to playground bullying is a cheap and base form of humor. I guess if your talents aren’t good enough for adults, that’s the best you can do.
Same old broken record to me.
I don’t think she’s funny. I find her annoying. She has nothing to say.
Ignorance; our biggest enemy. I’m getting tired of people who would just assume all Asians are the same and stereotyping us. As for Rosie, what a hypocrite!
Not that it’d help but I did write an e-mail to Barbara Walters. It occured to me that Asian American have the hardest time extracting an apology from ANYONE. That comic who made a joke about the Kim family? I don’t get it. “ching chong” is now an accent? I don’t get it. Perhaps my Asian genes are inhibiting my sense of humor? I think not – perhaps they’re not funny? I’ve progressed from pissed off to now super depressed.
I maintain that some of the most racist spews I’ve witnessed have come out of the mouths of fellow queer people. People’s queerness or political views do not necessarily make them less bigoted than even the most conservative heterosexuals. I’m so disappointed in her, not that I had particularly high expectations to begin with.
i guess it excuses her since she does an irish accent. that makes it ok. if you make fun of a white group of people then it immediately means it’s the same as making fun of a group of people of color. that’s right. i forgot. we live in a nation where whites are equal to people of color. my bad, rosie. thanks for the reminder! whew!
Susan, I couldn’t believe the audacity of that racist piece-of-garbage “comedian” you blogged about, and his attempt to absolve himself of guilt. Pathetic.
Anyway, I couldn’t really call myself a big Rosie O fan before this all went down, but I’ve completely lost whatever respect I previously had for her, because of this racist ching-chong business. Also pathetic.
good thing I missed this. I’d probably hate Rosie just like I hate Oprah.
Yes. Rosie is very much a hypocrite. Anyone, who makes fun of or puts down anyone who is different from them is wrong.
Rosie
has not been
funny
since
she was a
VJ
on VH-1
and she was
barely
funny
then.
I detest these so called comedians who think they can spout out anything they want.
I also can’t stand those comedians who stop doing standup and start giving us their views on all manner of politics and society
as thought they are some sort of moral authority. They are silly comedians! They need to get over themselves!
For so many reasons Rosie should be ashamed of herself.
For my 4 year old daughter who is proud to be learning Mandarin I cringe. I want to protect her from this kind of crap but I know she is going to experience it, possibly many times, and it breaks my heart.
The policy should be “no tolerance” for any type of incident, including incidents like this. I guess its heartening to see that the Asian American community rose up and aggressively dealt with it, but those two sisters who basically tacitly gave Rosie permission to use, make no ifs/ands/or/buts about it, what constitutes a racial slur to the Asian American community are an embarassment.
This is not about pawning this off on “childhood slurs heard on the playground”, this is about racism against the Asian American community and the wider implications of whether or not that racism is still acceptable in public discourse. It’s not about an “accent”, or defining “intent”, it’s not about some Angry Asians who don’t understand this idiot’s “humor”, it’s not about “political correctness”. It’s about whether or not Rosie deals with the fact that she did some racist shit.
Those two sisters in the front should be ashamed of themselves because they don’t speak for me or my family, and if anyone pulls that on the street on my kids or I, they’re going to learn an object lesson from my fist.
Would she have said, “Man, they’re talking about Danny Devito in Kenya, ‘oonga boonga, oonga boonga, click, click, click, oonga boonga’.” No, because she would’ve been shouted down for being RACIST.
This type of thing needs to meet with an aggressive response, each and every time it occurs. Btw IMHO, her “apology” was a crock.
Rosie said to BBC news:
“To say ‘ching chong’ to someone is very offensive, and some Asian people have told me it’s as bad as the n-word. Which I was like, ‘Really? I didn’t know that.’ I’m sorry for those people who felt hurt or were teased on the playground. But I’m also gonna give you a fair warning that there’s a good chance I’ll do something like that again, probably in the next week, not on purpose. Only ’cause it’s how my brain works.”
Ohhhh, I get it now. You’re a total idiot! It all makes sense!
Yeah, I agree. “Ching chong” is about as funny as non-Asians using the forefingers to slant their eyes, which is probably another laugher according to Rosie!
But I have a question… What do you all think about Sarah Silverman? She’s gotten a lot of slack from the Asian (and other) communities, but I actually think she makes of racism with her schticks.
What Rosie said was both racist and stupid, made even worse by digging in her heels. I was raised in an Asian-Hispanic neighborhood in So. Cal. and my adoptive dad, who’s a very dark skinned Latino, is a TOTAL racist against blacks and Asians and does that whole sing-song routine. Makes no difference how much I scream and shout about it. But ethnic humor is a funny thing. Was giving a ride home to several of my teenager daughter’s friends, Chinese-Americans, and they were talking about they bombed a test and my daughter asked, “Did you fail fail or Asian fail?” And I nearly crashed the car, but the boys laughed and said my daughter knew what she was talking about and that they’d “Asian failed” which, they explained, meant getting a B and their parents were going to KILL them. Then they started making all these Asian jokes and while I was laughing – mostly because they were hysterical giggling – I also felt kinda guilty. I laugh much louder when Mencia makes goofy Beaner jokes because I’m Mexican.