Trend alert: Ask a [Member of Ethnic Group] columns
by Carmen Van Kerckhove
It seems like several different publications are using the Ask a [Member of Ethnic Group] format to tackle race issues and/or poke fun at race and racism. Check out episode 21 of Addicted to Race for a discussion of the limitations of racial satire.
We all remember Paul Mooney’s Ask a Black Dude segments on The Chappelle Show. But have you checked out Seattle Weekly’s Ask a Mexican columns? (Thanks to Mark for the tip!) I’m not such a fan, especially not of the rather offensive caricature they use to illustrate the column. Here’s an excerpt:
My girls and I work at a Mexican restaurant, and the Mexican cooks are so infatuated with the Mexican Sandwich. Is this a cultural practice for all horny amigos? –From the Curious Center of the Mexican Sandwich
Dear Gabacha,
This column has discussed many of the Mexican male’s courting rituals, from lecherous whistles to stares that can bore through underwire bras and the ever- romantic slap on the ass. But few gestures are more revered amongst Mexican men than the torta, what you call the Mexican Sandwich. Two hombres grab an unsuspecting mujer—preferably a gabacha—and proceed to bump and grind her à la Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan’s “Night at the Roxbury” skit on Saturday Night Live. Instant torta!…
That column apparently inspired the blog Ask a Korean! Here’s an excerpt from that blog’s take on “the million dollar question:”
Why do Korean men beat their wives, and can I get any hints on how I canbeat my wife like a Korean? –Married in Manhattan
Dear Married,
Why do Korean men beat their wives?
Because the Korean wives never listen. (Rimshot.)
…why are Korean men singled out as wife beaters? The Korean’s hunch is that it’s because Korean men are compared to Chinese and Japanese men. It is well-chronicled that Chinese men are traditionally their women’s bitches. (Chinese men cook and everything!) Japanese men used to have some balls, but they were neutered in the process of getting rich. That only left Korean men to carry the torch in the region.
DiversityInc has also gone with this format, albeit for much more sincere reasons. I give props to Luke Visconti for tackling some tough questions in his column, Ask the White Guy. His latest one had me cracking up:
Question:
Would not “giving” black contractors 2 percent of the available job, reserving that portion for blacks just because they are black, actually be easily understood, clearly defined reverse discrimination? And wouldn’t it also be patronizing, condescending, and unfair? Does it really help those presumed disadvantaged to give them free things solely because of the color of their skin?
Answer:
It seems to have helped white people.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of 
Just Wondering wrote:
Luke’s column is really just a pretense.
Rather than trying to understand why people might question issues such as affirmative action or white privilege, he simply spouts the “party line” again and again.
It would be interesting if he would answer those questions in an in-depth, thoughtful manner. As just one example, is there some value in the idea that most white Americans have no historical ties to slavery?
Yet he just shoots down these issues with answers that sound like they come directly from an African-American blog on race.
Posted 21 Dec 2006 at 12:16 pm ¶
Katie wrote:
As in, “Luke sounds like a Black person?”
As in, “Luke isn’t acting sufficiently White?”
Your assumptions are…problematic.
Posted 21 Dec 2006 at 1:40 pm ¶
Just Wondering wrote:
Neither.
As I wrote earlier, Luke isn’t interested in examining the issues that are presented to him in the form of “questions.”
Luke himself writes:
“The title is meant to be ironic. It plays off the pompous attitudes of self-delusional know-it-all white guys like Rush Limbaugh. Before some of you white guys start tapping away on your keyboard, please understand that I’m not sorry if that offends some people. Guys like Limbaugh, O’Reilly, Franken and Moore give us white guys a bad name. ”
Right.
In other words, he himself admits it’s all a pretense.
Posted 21 Dec 2006 at 2:04 pm ¶
gatamala wrote:
Rather than trying to understand why people might question issues such as affirmative action or white privilege, he simply spouts the “party line” again and again.
Rather than regurgitating the same questions based on a misunderstaning of affirmative action in [what I assume to be] federal public contracts, why don’t people try to research the issueS before simply spouting the same “reverse discrimination” again and again?
is there some value in the idea that most white Americans have no historical ties to slavery?
As in “I didn’t own slaves” or “my family came from ___ in 1914, we didn’t own slaves” or “blacks/Natives owned slaves too” or “slavery happened in ____” etc…. AffAction is beyond “slavery”. It’s intent is to remedy deeply-ingrained, systemic race-based discrmination & disenfranchisement that is a product of color-based servitude and its underpinnings of color-based superiority. This color-based superiority and discrimination is by no way shape or form limited to “those who owned slaves.” IN FACT, it has expanded its reach to benefit those who got off the boat from 1865-2006 and left Irish, Slavic, Italian, Greek for white, or whose families never owned slaves. Sorry, there are no innocent bystanders (I mean, what descendant of freemen ever got a get-out-of-discrimination-free pass). If you are not ACTIVELY identifying, examining and your own privilege, you not only latch on to historical ties, you cultivate newer, stronger ones.
Yet he just shoots down these issues with answers that sound like they come directly from an African-American blog on race.
…those answers are inherently thoughtless and lack insight….considering they may echo what some AfAm blogs espouse, they just can’t be accepted.
Posted 21 Dec 2006 at 2:21 pm ¶
Kyla wrote:
How is that admitting it’s pretense? He’s admitting that he chose an ironic title for his column, i.e. instead of “Ask Luke Visconti” he chose “Ask the White Guy.” Ironic title != complete farce. And considering the column is about racism, choosing a race-based title is hardly “all a pretense.”
“Yet he just shoots down these issues with answers that sound like they come directly from an African-American blog on race.”
I’m looking at his answers right now, and I don’t know where you’re getting that. He obviously writes from a white perspective, and his answers reflect that. Just because he’s a white guy who actually seems to “get it” when it comes to race relations doesn’t mean he’s plagiarizing the blogs of people of color. Which I HOPE was what you were suggesting, and not that he was some sort of ‘egg’ or ‘reverse oreo’ or whatever.
Posted 21 Dec 2006 at 2:31 pm ¶
RobynT wrote:
Wow, except for the Chappelle’s show one I wasn’t aware of this. A mosque near my house has “Ask a Muslim” meetings, which… always struck me as a funny name even though the intent seems better than some of these others.
Posted 21 Dec 2006 at 4:13 pm ¶
Susan Ayoob wrote:
Some clarification regarding the Ask a Mexican column. It is done by a guy named Gustavo Arellano (I believe), a first generation Mexican-American living in Southern California and writing for the Orange County Weekly (I guess it’s syndicated now). The column has been at the center of debate with some of my friends; I’ve heard him called a “sellout”. I support him and the column, mostly because I applaud anyone who has the patience to wade through white people’s questions about Mexican culture. Better he answers some of these questions than me! And yes, a lot of the questions he gets are ignorant, but PEOPLE THINK THESE THINGS, whether we want to acknowledge it or not. He answers them either with humor (an important Mexican trait, the ability to laugh at oneself), or erudition, since he did graduate work in Chicano studies at UCLA.
Posted 21 Dec 2006 at 6:37 pm ¶
sylviasrevenge wrote:
I resent this remark on so many levels.
First off, creating an ironic title does not invalidate an entire column. Secondly, what kinds of answers are you expecting? Thirdly, if you’re expecting a specific answer, why ask the question since you already seem to know what answer you want? Or is it just something you weren’t expecting to hear from another white person?
It seems like he already did so. Not liking his answer doesn’t invalidate his attempt.
Posted 21 Dec 2006 at 9:29 pm ¶
madame wrote:
To Just Wondering:
… I love the response “It seems to have helped white people,” because it gets right to the point. And your comment about how the response sounds like its African-American - I’m sorry, but how is the problem?
———
Perhaps post-slavery is the most vital issue: for example, the Fair Housing Act of 1934 from which the practice of redlining arose: white neighborhoods - Grade A, (cheaper loans, higher equity) and grade D for black neighborhoods (the opposite effect), and “immigrant” communites graded in-between. The result: increased prosperity for white and immigrant communities at the expense of black communities. Of course, poor blacks and poor whites really were in the same position, the only difference being that the life of poor white person had more value.
One more thing…why is it that “American whiteness” is so monolithic? White is multi-ethnic and we need to start talking about whiteness as an ethnicity. My husband is norwegian and dutch, my father, german and english; the majority of “white” people in the United States are mixed. The monolith is the seat of privilege - strip it down.
Posted 22 Dec 2006 at 8:34 am ¶
s wrote:
“Of course, poor blacks and poor whites really were in the same position, the only difference being that the life of poor white person had more value.”
The ONLY difference? ONLY? That’s a HUGE difference.
Posted 22 Dec 2006 at 9:27 am ¶
sylviasrevenge wrote:
So are the majority of blacks descended from African slaves brought to America. What does “fracturing the monolith” solve about privilege exactly?
Posted 22 Dec 2006 at 12:31 pm ¶
madame wrote:
Ok s,
Wow, well excuse me for not saying HUGE. Only was not intended as a minimizer.
Posted 22 Dec 2006 at 1:10 pm ¶
Just Wondering wrote:
I resent this remark on so many levels.
Sorry.
Would it be better if I simply agreed with everything you and other readers posted here in the comments?
if you’re expecting a specific answer, why ask the question since you already seem to know what answer you want?
I didn’t ask any questions. I don’t know that anyone did. The column appears to be a complete setup.
Posted 22 Dec 2006 at 6:12 pm ¶
sylviasrevenge wrote:
No, it would be better if you weren’t dismissive of other people’s responses before receiving them.
The only evidence you’ve offered for the column being a setup is its ironic title and your personal assessment of someone’s remarks being a “party line.” Pardon me, but that assessment seems very superficial.
Posted 23 Dec 2006 at 3:42 am ¶
Just Wondering wrote:
Sylvia:
What if Carmen linked to a column called “Ask a Black Man” and we all followed the link to read:
1) A question about reparations — and the columnist shot down the idea saying it was wrong and he wouldn’t accept any more e-mails about it.
2) A question about affirmative action — and the columnist said there was no need for programs like that because everyone in America has an equal chance at succeeding.
3) A question about race-based admissions to college — and the columnist said such actions were unfair to white students.
At what point would you begin to question whether this was really a serious column about black issues?
It’s a little surprising that you are up in arms about this. Given that “Ask a White Man” is hosted on a site called Diversity Inc. and that Luke himself says he is poking fun at the pomposity of white men, I don’t know why it’s so hard to believe there isn’t a particular agenda at play.
Posted 23 Dec 2006 at 12:43 pm ¶
Gustavo Arellano wrote:
The Mexican says: Gracias for the plug!
Posted 23 Dec 2006 at 4:41 pm ¶
sylviasrevenge wrote:
Just Wondering, the point of view of a person is not always agenda pushing. That’s my essential point. I’m not up in arms, but at the same time I’m not unilaterally dismissive. I find it difficult to believe that a person can categorically disagree with another person on absolutely everything without that person pushing an agenda of his own.
And I also disliked the fact that your method of indicating that Luke pushes an agenda was to implicate “African-American blogs” as the style he’s mimicking — as if nothing of worth comes from those types of blogs, and as if the
perspectives of African-American bloggers are not as widely varied as those of any other people. I sensed a bit of agenda pushing on your part with that remark, and so I decided to respond.
Posted 24 Dec 2006 at 2:58 pm ¶