Rosie O’Donnell’s Racist Anti-Chinese Expression

Rosie O’Donnell: Apologize To The Chinese; Apologize To Everyone

I see that LaTosha is justifiably upset over Rosie O’Donnell’s recent mockery of the Chinese. And, for anyone who thought it might be difficult to simultaneously offend 1/5 of the world’s population, we give you, (ta da!) Ms. O’Donnell. Yes, indeed, you have to be quite brainy to take a cheap shot at some 1.3 billion people in one swoop.

I decided to look into this issue a bit myself, because, I also am surprised at how little coverage Rosie’s bigoted expression is receiving.

I noticed on Rosie’s blog, she briefly addresses Will who writes:

Rosie:
for someone who comes off to be so sensitive and aware of lgbt issues, why did you think it was alright to mock Chinese people and the language on The View (re:danny devito: ching chong …)???

Now, it’s not my intent to crucify Ms. O’Donnell over a lapse in judgment (that just happened to be seen by millions of people), but, it is a fair question that’s posed. You can’t have it both ways in life. Well, you can, but then you risk being criticized for hypocrisy (among other things): sort of like what’s happening in this very post.

Now, I do believe strongly in forgiveness; yet, I also believe in accountability. So, how did Rosie explain her racist, anti-Chinese expression:

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 china

it was not meant to mock

Now, one might think that given the gravity of this issue (unless a little anti-Chinese racism is no big deal… and judging from the lack of media coverage, one could, indeed, get the impression that a little anti-Chinese racism ain’t no big deal) … but, truly, given the seriousness of this issue, one might think that Rosie would have put a bit more effort into her explanation, and, perhaps even said the word, um, sorry.

Yes, I’m all for forgiveness, but, sometimes it can be a little difficult if the person doesn’t acknowledge a wrong. (Now, this is the case sometimes, and, it’s still beneficial to forgive and make peace, but, that’s another topic.)

Now, I actually believe that Rosie didn’t mean any mockery or offense by her little bigoted, role-playing. I find it doubtful that if she considered it to be a truly racist and offensive expression, that she would have proceeded with the little skit.

But, that in itself is quite disturbing! Because, it gets to some very real roots of racism. Oh, yes, the racism tree grows tall and the roots run deep, deep, deep: all the way back to childhood, when we (myself, I’m sorry to say included) acted out these anti-Asian skits and mocked the phonetic sounds of the Chinese and Japanese languages.

I recall one particularly disgusting skit in which the child said,

“My mom’s Chinese, my dad’s Japanese, and I’m all mixed up.”

And, while saying this the child pushed the corner of one eye up and the corner of the other eye down.

How disturbing it is to remember this!

Honestly, that type of thing is just so thoroughly disgusting that I hesitated to even write out that memory. But, these are exactly the sort of things that we as Americans need to be talking about, and, if I know one thing… it’s that Americans sure as hell don’t like talking about racism… well, at least most white Americans don’t.

Unfortunately for them, some white celebrities are getting quite brazen in their racist expressions, and, blogs exist. And, we are going to explore these issues and demand accountability.

Now, what’s so disturbing about Rosie’s recent racism, and, please, if somebody’s a racist, do not hesitate to loudly proclaim their racism. And, make no mistake, despite what Rosie scribbles in her blog defense, that was an anti-Chinese racist skit she acted out on her program.

And, what adds further irony and obscenity to this story is Rosie’s sensitivity at imagined slights when it comes to issues affecting (or not affecting) the gay and lesbian community (as we saw over her stupid and imaginative umbrage at Kelly Ripa’s innocent fun!)

And, once again, I remind you Rosie O’Donnell: you cannot have it both ways … You cannot be hyper-sensitive at bigotry (or, in the case of Kelly Ripa… imagined bigotry) to the gay community and act out racist skits with no penalty or accountability.

And, that’s exactly what’s happening right now. Rosie’s racist expression is getting very little media coverage, and, that’s just really hard to understand. It makes one wonder if that’s because it was anti-Chinese.

After all, Mel Gibson offends the Jews and all hell breaks loose. Michael Richards offends African Americans and all hell breaks loose. Rosie O’Donnell offends the Chinese… and… and… and… cue Simon and Garfunkel The Sound of Silence.

Well, this is CelebritySatan.com, so, drop the needle on Bring The Noise, because, we aren’t through with you Rosie. And, we’re disturbed that this story hasn’t gotten the attention it merits. And, we’re trying to correct that here.

In conclusion, what makes this story most upsetting is that I believe Rosie when she says that it was not her intent to mock. And, though her China skit was racist, I don’t believe Ms. O’Donnell is a racist. I think that her anti-Chinese racist expression indicates just how deep racism runs in Americans. It is in the very core of our bones because we started getting poisoned with it in childhood.

How many of you know that song that I mentioned earlier…

“My mom’s Chinese, my dad’s Japanese, and I’m all mixed up.”

How many of you, my fellow Americans, also made the phonetic mockeries of Asian languages? How many of you still do? This water runs deep… real deep. And, as I said, it’s just in our bones… in our marrow. And, it comes out.. oh, hell yeah, it comes out.

You know, I don’t believe that deep-down Michael Richards is any sort of vicious racist. If he were, how could it have been hidden for so long? What Michael Richards is is an American. And, we’ve got this racism in our bloodstream. I believe we all have it. It’s sickness and disease and it was put there by history… by our relationship to history.. by our denial of history.

By our genocide of the native American Indians. By our enslavement of the Africans. By our exploitation of the Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, and Koreans. By our internment of the Japanese. By our bullets in the Vietnamese. By our bombs over Baghdad. By our obscene police brutality towards black folks.

By our celebrity culture that continually reinforces the idea that what’s beautiful is tall, skinny, and white with straight hair.

The truth, of course, could set us free. But, we don’t want the truth. The schools don’t teach anything about the American historical brutality. If they did, we’d see that all of history is brutal, and, there’s really nothing to feel so guilty about.

Instead, we stagger along, and, our deep sentiments, from time to time, slip right out of our bones and become words in the air, and, everyone’s shocked. Everyone’s scratching their heads. How did this happen? Mel Gibson espoused anti-Semitic sentiments? Michael Richards yelled nigger? Rosie O’Donnell mocked the Chinese? How did this happen?

It happens because it can’t help but happen. It will continue to happen, because, although it seems like we like to talk about it… we’re not really talking about it… it’s all just fluff, just as Rosie O’Donnell’s blog explanation was complete fluff.

But, life goes on. Rosie, it seems, has a new job lined up. I’d say it’s quite likely that she continues to be rich, obnoxious, and incredibly offensive. I’d say it’s equally likely that if you’re not a white man, you have to put up with quite a bit of bullshit.

Thank you for reading this long post!
Yours in Christ,
Katie
TV Bland

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