by Carmen Van Kerckhove
Angry Asian Man thinks this ad is racist. (”Why can’t Asians just eat a frickin’ Whopper like everyone else? Why do they have to slither like a snake, and do idiotic kung fu stuff?”) But I’m on the fence with this one. What do you think?
Yep, it’s tired, and I am tired of seeing it. Tired of the same karate or comedian sidekick roles for Asian men. Can’t they play the mayor, officer,
lover sometimes. Yeah, I am tired of Hollywood putting the needle back on the record when it comes to Asians.
Racist? I’m going to have to say yes.
Hollywood: Hire some new writers, for Goodness sake!
eeew its just gross too. maybe just because I don’t like snakes. It reminds of of the scene in V where they discover that the Visitors are really reptiles and swollow small rodents for snacks.
I’ve seen it, and it’s the worse thing I’ve ever seen. It’s like watching a trainwreck..it’s horrible, yet you can’t look away.
I thought it was actually funny.They just didn’t need the kung fu part at the end.Other then that, it’s not racist to me.
Are Asians allowed to make fun of Kung Fu movies without being racist?
I don’t know. I don’t necessarily think the snake part was racist; it was weird, but it would have been equally weird and humorous if the guy was black, white, whatever. If he was American Indian or Indian-from-India, maybe, because the former has the stereotype of being “closer to animals” and the later the snake-charmer thing, but Asian? I don’t know. Probably not.
The kung-fu bit at the end, though, did not fit into the flow of the commercial and was entirely unnecessary. That part? Yeah, that was racist.
Pretty much felt the same way - actually weird and amusing for the most part, until they throw in the ending to point out that, yes, he is Asian and knows his kung-fu like the rest of them and ha-ha isn’t that great? The song in the background that intones “Eat like snake…” was approaching it.
Yep, that’s racist.
Not gonna lie, I wanted to hurl when I saw this ad. I can’t believe I forgot to mail you guys about it.
The ending is definitely racist. Everything that comes before is just….amusingly weird.
I get AAM’s drift somewhat, though. Why CAN’T he just eat the burger like a regular person? But then again, there wouldn’t be a point to the commerical if it weren’t doing something quirky to catch your attention. Really, the ending just phucks it up totally. I’m amazed that there weren’t any Asians overseeing the production end of this commerical who didn’t throw red X’s up in the air over that part.
And it doesn’t really make me wanna eat a Whopper.
This may sound overly relative, but context matters here. Question: Is this ad airing in the US, Europe, or Asia?
In the US market, it’s definitely racist—no, white supremacist. On YouTube, it’s totally white supremacist (no matter what their oh-so-ironic users want to say about it). Most US-born folks grew up internalizing specifically American anti-Asian memes—take your pick here: man of color as animalistic, Asian man as both enasculated and evil, Asians as foreign and genetically skilled at kung fu. This subtext affects how folks here in the States view this commercial—especially white folks. I urge any skeptics to check out some of the sorry-ass comments over at YouTube.
As for markets in Asia, I have no idea. People who live in Japan, Korea, PRC, Taiwan, and elsewhere have their own memes and standards for what’s offensive. I wouldn’t purport to speak for them. But I can state one thing for absolute certain: Fuck Burger King.
The first part of the commercial was great. I didn’t mind it at all, and I didn’t think “STEREOTYPE!” when I saw it. I just laughed.
Then came the Kung-fu part, which kinda ruined things for me. Not only was it stereotyping again, but it ruined the momentum of the commercial, making it unfunny from that point on.
I just realized I didn’t actually explain what bothered me about the ad in the first place.
Like some of the previous posters, I was like “why can’t the guy just eat a fucking burger?!” I think it bothered me more because I was initially happy to see an East-Asian man taking center stage in a burger ad, whose frequently stereotypical, “ultra-masculine” themes are the antitheses of the “emasculated Asian man” ideals propagated by the U.S. media.
So when dude suddenly morphs into SnakeMan, I let out an audible groan.
Plus, the whole “snake” thing seems very akin to the “Yellow Peril” Fu Manchu-type representations of old.
And “eat like snake?” That’s only slightly more subtle than Eddie Murphy’s “ugry brack one.”
Urgghh, I’m sick of this crap, and I’m not even in the US. To a smaller extent the Uk follows the same views as those over the pond - selected stereotypes that come with every sighting of an Oriental person over here (yup, we’re not even Asian).
Sod all this though, once Eastern Europe has stabilised I’m moving there. No stereotypical bullshit, just you and a chance to make something of yourselves.
The ending put it over the line for me. They had to make the guy do martial arts…
That’s the stupidest shit I’ve ever seen in my life. WTF was Burger King thinking?!?!? I’m boycotting that frickin’ restaurant! ( Not that I ever ate there that often, anyway!)
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of New Demographic, an anti-racism training company. She hosts the podcast Addicted to Race and blogs at Racialicious, Anti-Racist Parent, and Race in the Workplace.
Racialicious! is a production of New Demographic.
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In case you missed it… at Anti-Racist Parent - for parents committed to raising children with an anti-racist outlook on 13 Oct 2006 at 10:51 am
[…] Burger King ‘Eat Like a Snake’ commercial: Why a snake? And why does the Asian man have to do a bunch of kung fu right at the end there? […]