This is an extension of a comment that I posted at AnomalousData.com, where my friends James and Teresa have been having a debate about the Rosie question. You can read more about it at AnomalousData. Basically, Rosie imitated an Asian person, by using stereotypically Asian sounding gibberish, and apparently with a stupid face. Out of context, this can appear quite bigoted. In context, however, it could be completely appropriate. Rosie did apologize for any offense that may have been given, but she also maintains that there was a no bigotry intended.So, below is my extended comment, with further comments about the use of "fake" languages in the media at the end; in particular my take on a segment in Pirates of the Caribbean II: Dead Man's Chest.
I spoke a bit more with James about this particular incident. He is a religious (in the sense of regular) watcher of "The View". He saw the episode in question. As an otherwise very P.C. sensitive black gay man, he did not see the incident as bigoted, and said that in the context, it was appropriate. Apparently Rosie was doing a loose quote of someone else, which was clear in context. He’s certain that no one who had seen the entire segment and the context would have considered it offensive. I don't know. I didn't see it. I think that James was upset for these reasons:
1) A judgment was made based on a clip out of context and amplified in a public forum.
2) He's particularly sensitive to the word "bigot" and can’t forgive its use in such a way.
3) He considers Rosie a good person and doesn't want to see her attacked, especially since she wasn’t trying to hurt anyone.
I also think that James was not reading the same reasonableness in Teresa's posting as I was. I suspect that those of us who know Teresa personally are better able to understand her point of view. The way I read it, Teresa acknowledged that she might not have complete information and that she wasn't trying to make a character attack, but was commenting on the little that she knew. I think that James was hoping for a total retraction and apology. I don’t think that James will ever be able to see Teresa’s post as legitimate because of the way that it is phrased. Interestingly enough, he feels that Teresa has the responsibility to have found out more about the situation before publishing a potentially character damaging blog post. He thinks that it was wrong for her to base her information solely on the version put forth by the Colbert Report, which is known to take the most embarrassing/accidental moments and twist them to be even more embarrassing or insulting for the sake of comedy.
I personally tend to fall on the side that if someone just saw that short segment of Rosie’s imitation, then that particular action of stereotyping could be considered inappropriate, but when viewed in context, it is OK. Similarly one could say for example, that the action of a man hitting a woman (or the other way around, for that matter) is an inappropriate action. However, if one is able to see that it is in the context of a Kung Fu match and not domestic abuse, then it is context appropriate, and no one should feel offended on the "victim's" behalf.
Incidentally, I have observed a lot of ‘imitation German’, particularly from comedians – none of which makes any sense, and is usually delivered in a stereotypically authoritarian/military manner - and no one seems to get all that offended. (For those who are wondering; there is no semantic relation between the Volkswagen phrase “Fahrvergnügen” and the pop culture adaptation “Farfrompüken”.) Perhaps they should get offended, though. The use of such stereotypical imitation insists on associating all Germans with the Nazis and such caricatures as the guards and soldiers in the various WWII movies.
Actually, movies are a forum where “fake” language was used for 'foreigners' a lot until recently. One more often sees real language used in more recent movies set in other countries, rather than gibberish. Prime examples are The Bourne Identity and Chasing Liberty, just to name a couple. Even today, though, people do pretty tasteless stuff in the name of comedy. Did anyone else think that the cannibal savage scene in the second Pirates of the
1 comment:
I didn't see the second Pirates of tha Carribean Movie, but I suspect that it would bother me.
The "native" gibberish on Gilligan's Island, the terrible steriotypical buffoonary and unquestioning slavish todying of the "Germans" on Hogan's Heros, the offensivly cartoony asian-ish accents of the trade federation in the latter Star Wars movies, The Gungan's badly mangled faux-rasta accent...they all bother me.
That said, there IS a subtlty to the question that is important. Rosie apologized and that's good enough for me. I don't think she meant any harm. She just let her unconcious bias show (in my opinion).
Our brains are structured to make generalizations based on observed tendancies on groups or populations. While that's not something we can change, we CAN control our behavior, and if our behavior is inappropriate, we can apologize. As Rosie did.
I like a comdeian or whatnot who can call our attention to this tendancy and let us laugh at our own sillyness, that can diminish, mock, deride, or otherwise make us aware of our biases and not allow us to ignore them while at the same time letting us laugh at ourselves for having them. That's a tough row to hoe, but some manage to do it well, and others seem to be constantly doomed to put their foot in the soup.
The problem I have is when the portrayal of these sterotypes is hurtful, derogatory, defamatory or cartoonish (putting sterotypical traits out of proportion or overblowing them, or perpetuating them in a way that is unrealistic or defamatory)
For instance, the buck-toothed look that Rosie portrayed was one that Asian actors used to have to affect, so out of proportion was the perception of the Asian appearance to reality, for instance. we've already covered the subject of the "ching-chong" thing over at my blog, so I won't go into it further here.
Trees
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