The moment I saw multiple Facebook friends posting this viral video onto my newsfeed, I knew what the content was about. From Rush Limbaugh’s mocking of President Hu Jintao of China to Miley Cyrus’s slanty-eyed photo, I think I’ve seen enough to know how Asian/-Americans are usually bashed in the media — and almost always unoriginally, might I add.
I knew UCLA student Alexandra Wallace, before I even knew her name, would do an offensive imitation involving an absolutely degrading Ching-Chong imitation the likes of Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany’s and try to mask her blatant racism in the lines of “Oh, I’m just being politically incorrect y’all!”
I would have even expected her to give us a Sarah Palin-esque wink in the end to really make the video shine.
What she did was completely wrong, there shouldn’t be any debate about it. Wallace made this video because she didn’t think anyone would call her out and instead of expressing a complaint about people talking in the library, she brought ethnicity into it. She posted the original vlog on Facebook because she thought the kids she considered “friends” whose parents taught them “American manners” would agree, thinking they’ll all laugh at the silly gooks with her. She most likely thought the hordes of Asians and their “moms, their brothers, their sisters, their grandmas, their grandpas, their cousins” wouldn’t be in rage over it — and rightfully so.
I was most offended by how Wallace heartlessly criticized fellow Asian students for calling their relatives in a recent time of crisis. They might have been a distraction in the library but come on, cut them some slack! They’re trying to see if any of their loved ones are still ALIVE after the combined earthquakes-and-tsunami in Japan for gosh sakes. Your freakin’ “epiphany” will come back, their family probably won’t!
I was furious at Wallace but I was also mad at how so many of my peers are reacting towards her video.
In the last two days since the video was released, I became all too familiar with the responses towards Wallace. Overwhelming legitimate criticisms of her behavior by the millions were the threats to beat, attack, kill and rape her. Youtube videos that could have been intelligent parodies were rendered immature by the fact that the vloggers focused mainly on Wallace’s body and gender rather than her racist sayings — just as the user Xuyah has done by reducing her to just her boobs adding he “might get the wrong idea, y’know?”
I even read a status update from a fellow Asian American Mills student who wrote “This bitch is gonna be shanked!” as though she couldn’t even ACT like she went to a women’s college.
Really, people? We’re doing this now — an eye for an eye? Then, how are you any different from the people who killed their spouses in so-called ‘crimes of passion’ or gangs shooting up others for stepping onto the wrong turf? Do we really have to resort to violent threats and slut-shaming every time some idiot offends us?
I want her apology, not her blood on my hands!
We shouldn’t be treating people like this because we’re better than that. Just as she shouldn’t be spouting her racist rhetoric on any forum, we shouldn’t call her a “dumb blonde” or “slut/ho/whore” just because she is a white girl who wore a low-cut top in the video.
Not that this would excuse her disgusting behavior, but gosh darn it, she lives in Los Angeles — where the explosively hot desert is. I would wear a shirt like that if it even hits 80 degrees in the Bay Area.
So, criticize her for the beyond-disrespectful things she has said and probably doesn’t feel a bit guilty about even when she got caught. Wallace’s not horrible because she’s female so stop reducing her entire character — if she had any — to just her gender and “slutty” cleavage. To degrade someone for being a woman is to degrade ALL women, haven’t any of you watched Mean Girls?!
Okay, I’m going to take a breather and introduce one perfect example of how to criticize someone’s actions rather than their appearance. SoundClick music community user DraculoSucks made a ring-tone the night Wallace’s vlog became popular by remixing her soundbites.
Not only is it a catchy tune, it hilariously used her racist words to make her sound even more foolish. I burst out laughing the first time he looped in her “Ooohhhh, Ching Chong Ling Long Ting Tong!” and am amazed that there was no mention of her being blond, a woman or “skanky.” His tactic was simple yet so very clever and still getting the point of his anti-racist message across.
Perhaps we should all take a leaf out of DraculoSucks’ book if we want to have a discussion about this debacle without resorting to sexism and death threats. If Wallace is as bad as you claim her to be, then don’t stoop to her level.
Agree or disagree with this response to the video rant? Let everyone know by leaving a comment below.
You can read more related posts on The Campanil’s special page about the disaster in Japan.
