by Guest Contributor Diana, originally published at DISGRASIAN
What is UP with famous country folk and their love of doing the chink eye (see 1:25 of the clip)?
Not to generalize or whatever, but… isn’t that kinda what Toby’s doing here?
[TMZ: Toby Keith Adds Racist Slant To Nobel Party]
Latoya’s Note: This was covered on the Huffington Post, and Nezua posts a screengrab of a poll that really does say it all -
I saw this yesterday and voted in part just to see what everyone else though. Unfortunately, I am so jaded that I wasn’t surprised that 50% of people seem to think this is ok. This is so disappointing. Its open season on Asians in this country.
most people think that racism against Asians or Asian Americans can’t really exist.
Toby Keith is a fucking idiotic, racist jerk.
Outside of the quick poll, I think most people out there really don’t know and/or don’t care about such gestures. We can actually do something for people who don’t know, but for those who just don’t care, it’s kind of futile.
Wait, so that poll is on Huffington Post, the so-called liberal site? Ah…hypocrisy.
“Nobody at the party thought Toby was out of line”… for Pete’s sake. That might be up there with “I’m sorry you were offended” as most annoying non-apology weasel statements.
Btw, how did Toby “boot up your ass” Keith get invited to a Nobel Peace Prize concert???
I shouldn’t have to explain why this is offensive to Asians, especially to the readers of this website, but I figure since the mainstream media seems to have taken notice of racism against Asians for once, there might be a lot of new uninformed readers here.
Just yesterday, I was at Walmart, shopping for Christmas, when a kid walking by gave me a suspicious look and, as he walked away, sang what I call the “Chinese Stereotype Melody.” I have no idea where it came from, but Asian Americans probably know what I’m talking about. It goes something like, “da-da-da-da duh duh, duh duh, da” and has been used in countless shows and movies (often accompanied by fake martial arts, a gong sound, bowing, fake Chinese words, and just all around mockery of Chinese people, and, by extension, all Asians). That simple gesture had the effect of reminding me that no matter how hard I work, no matter how highly educated I may be, no matter how much maturity, poise, and dignity I strive to display, no matter how much my family sacrifices, and no matter how much love and patriotism I have for my homeland, the United States of America, where my family has worked and lived and died for three generations, I WILL ALWAYS BE A FOREIGNER, I WILL ALWAYS BE INFERIOR TO SOME DUMBASS FAT KID JUST BECAUSE HE IS WHITE, and I WILL NEVER BE A “REAL AMERICAN” like that pompous asshole Toby Keith. Just because he puts on a cowboy hat and has a white face, he is empowered with all the down-home country goodness and positive connotations that go with that, just because of his appearance, even though he hasn’t earned any respect in my book. Just because my eyelids have medial epicanthal folds, I am seen as a subhuman Ch*naman who deserves nothing more than to work in a sweatshop making Nikes or in a kitchen making shrimp fried rice. Are appearances really everything?
Anyway, even though this melody probably had the original intention of cheap laughs for people who think Orientalizing, exoticizing, and marginalizing people who are perceived to be perpetual foreigners is funny and entertaining and safe because they’ve never had to confront their own racism, it has the effect, over generations, of making millions of people victims of taunting, bullying, concentration camps, anti-immigration laws, colonization, fetishizing, rape, terror, torture, and socioeconomic inequality. We call this racism.
“It’s just a stupid melody,” you might be saying to yourself. “It’s just a stupid gesture.” And you would be right–it is stupid. It’s something that I would have hoped to leave on the playground 20 years ago. But the persistence of mockery of Asians, particularly the extent to which it’s accepted as innocuous, represents a growing trend that racism against Asians is not only acceptable, but doesn’t even exist. It quickly leads into the model minority myth–the myth that Asians are doing so well socioeconomically that they, like whites, don’t experience racism. This is an insidious lie, specifically designed to eliminate opposition to the systematic oppression that is racism.
I won’t detail the ongoing struggle against racism that Asians experience in America and other places where we are minorities. Either you understand it exists, or you need to open your own eyes. I’m not going to do it for you. All I’m giving you, for those who do not understand why these stupid little playground taunts like the eye pulling and the mockery are racist because they contribute directly and inevitably to social injustice, is a chance to realize that racism is a big deal to people who have to struggle against it every day. I’m inviting you to get on board with anti-racism instead of the tired cliché that is racism denial. Act like you know.
^^ Was never too fond of Washington Post anyhow. Toby Keith’s music blows hard, so I’m not to suprised about his ethnic views..
this makes me sick. i’m not surprised keith did that, but i’m surprised and upset that according to the non-scientific poll that said around 50% of people said it was harmless.
as for “nobody at the party thought it was out of line”, it sounds like all in attendance had the social graces and senses of humor of small children who had never been taught better. *sigh
Yikes!@ 46% of people thinking this was harmless.
What kind a secluded cave does one live in to think that’s okay… Gawd.
I want to believe nobody at the party saw it because who’s going to look at Toby Keith when you’ve got Will Smith rapping next to him (rare sight nowadays!), but that doesn’t make the gesture any less offensive.
Hmm. I’m optimistically going with “46% of people _who know who Toby Keith is_ think his gesture was harmless.”
I’m also optimistically going with: either Will Smith didn’t see it or was extremely professional in going on with the song without missing a beat.
I love this site and love the posts, but news like this just turns my stomach. 
I already knew Toby Keith was a fool but who are these pollsters that think this is acceptable?
@ Elton
That melody is used at the beginning of “Turning Japanese.” I hate that song, and that stupid tune.
Racism is in fashion now. It’s the right-wing backlash. They are so clueless.
Not surprising. After all, Toby Keith was the guy who wrote this song:
Grandpappy told my pappy, back in my day, son
A man had to answer for the wicked that he done
Take all the rope in Texas
Find a tall oak tree, round up all of them bad boys
Hang them high in the street for all the people to see that
(but interestingly enough, he’s anti-Iraq war and pro-Obama)
I agree with Mary. Toby Keith’s
music is a celebration of imperialistic violence and anti-intellectualism. That’s what his words and appearance say to me. I have no clue
why he was at anything Nobel related,
but then again, I have no idea why racism survives better than subway roaches.
I’m not surprised at all that so many people find it acceptable. Every time stuff like this happens, the worst part is not the actual event. It’s the inevitable mainstream reaction: “lighten up folks! Where’s your sense of humor! It’s not like Asians have anything real to complain about. You people are all doctors and lawyers!”
RIGHT ON, ELTON!
i remember when i was young kids would run up to me doing the eye-gesture… i suppose a lot of them grew up to be in that 46%. this just made me sad.
Only Hannah Montana and Toby Keith are the two country music stars that have made this obnoxious gesture. I object to suggesting that this is something all country stars do, it’s sort of like that absurd piece (ALSO on Huffington) chastising both Tiger Woods and Obama because they both happen to be black (only one of them even self-identifies as SUCH!).
how disgusting.
this is the first time I’ve ever heard of Toby Keith.
I hate how people think that the Asian(-American) model minority stereotype excludes them from taking offense at racist remarks.
I never know what to say when I see certain(multiple) photos posted on Facebook with a bunch of White American girls grinning. In these photos, if one girl has her eyes squinting in a certain way, there is inevitably a comment along the lines of “hahaha i look chinese hahaha.” (context: I go to a high school in TX)
p.s. I love Will Smith.
Let’s not forget the entire Spanish basketball team did this for a photo prior to/during the Beijing Olympics. And then used the classic, “but we have [POC] friends” argument.
i thought it was common knowledge that toby keith is a racist.
I’m confused by why Toby Keith is performing at a Nobel Peace Prize event anyway — isn’t he the “we’ll put a boot in your ass, it’s the American way” guy? Real peaceful there.
Also, applause for Elton. I really appreciate you sharing your experience and perspective, and it is ridiculous that some people still don’t get the realities that you describe.
It doesn’t matter to these racist roaches if we Asians say something. Why doesn’t someone in country music say something? Why doesn’t anyone else who’s famous say something? I’m fucking so tired of people telling me to not be so sensitive.
Why is it more important that he not be labeled a racist than that I am hurt by his racist actions? I have never understood most people’s reactions when these kinds of things happen. People just tell me to get over it or that it’s no big deal – why is it so much easier to tell me to ignore the offense than to tell him off? Why does it matter more if he’s hurt than if I’m hurt?
Oh right. Because he’s the REAL American and I’m just some foreigner who happened to be born in the heart of New York.
@Elton: F*ck yeah. I hate that melody. I want to find out which a-hole invented it as a TV stock melody to be used over and over again when ever Chinese people appear on TV, as if any Chinese person exists only as an allusion to Chinese caricatures in racist TV of the past.
I would call it the “Ch*naman melody”, because that’s what it’s about. The name “ch*nk eye” is apt for the same reason.
Sadly, his rendition of Desperado will always have a special place in my heart.
I used to like country, but then it got political.
The racists always had a grip on country music, unfortunately.
Wow..I wouldn’t have even caught that without the screencap. See, this is why the internet can be awesome- now he has to own up to his racism, where once it would have blown over because there was no proof.
I’m surprised by nothing on Huffington Post after seeing commenters turn straight Stormfront when the media was blaming the passage of Prop 8 on black people (based on a poll of 200 people)… that and large group of people there (commenters and article writers) coming out in support of Roman Polanski.
That **stuff** is not okay…It’s not a trend, it’s a resurgence, at best. This has been how the United States has treated our East Asian and Pacific Islander fam for many, many years.
Even recent history is littered with rank anti-Asian imagery. Remember the A&F t-shirts a few years back with dry cleaning stereotypes? The Harajuku Girls Gwen Stefani dragged around with her? What about when Rosie dropped “ching chong” on us all?
This is a pattern we have been seeing for quite a while. We need to start standing to our personal circles, especially but not only with our white friends and co-workers, etc., and saying that’s not okay, or it will stay “harmless”.
Well, Will Smith did see it and got upset for a moment. Just watch the video again. He gets visibly rattled when Keith does the gesture, but tries to downplay his reaction. What is he gong to do, stop the song? I think he was trying to exit gracefully.
My call to action was not just to any one, but to all of us, and was a bit too sweeping in its generalization.
I realize that many of us already DO call people out, but I also know I need to do more, and I think it would help to remind people who we call friends and family about this imagery and the attitudes and structures they support. That’s something I think we can all do, and it’s an action step, which motivates me to keep going when I see this sort of bile continue on and on…
Toby Keith was one of my favorite country singers too. It’s a shame. Brad Paisley had better not act out.
I knew Toby Keith was a racist idiot after his stupid jingoistic song supporting Bush’s illegal wars. Who invited him anyway to sing at the Peace Prize event? Such gestures as what he did only help to perpetuate disunity and racism, not peace. Elton explained it best what harm such “innocent” gestures really create.
@Elton:
Did some Googling. It’s called the Oriental riff. There’s actually a website about it, too: The Musical Cliché Figure Signifying The Far East: Whence, Wherefore, Whither?
@Elton:
I really think this part of your post says it all.
“no matter how much love and patriotism I have for my homeland, the United States of America, where my family has worked and lived and died for three generations, I WILL ALWAYS BE A FOREIGNER, I WILL ALWAYS BE INFERIOR TO SOME DUMBASS FAT KID JUST BECAUSE HE IS WHITE, and I WILL NEVER BE A “REAL AMERICAN””
That’s why it’s offensive, that’s why being labeled “other” or “exotic” is offensive. Because what they’re really saying is you’re not “normal,” you’re not “like us” and even more sinister, “you don’t have the right to be here.”
@ Elton,
My female co-worker is Korean, and she related to me how a black lady on the subway called her a “chink” and dared her to do something about it. I felt AWFUL for her. I did. And the “oriental” riff that the kid threw at you? I empathize with you. I don’t know what’s wrong with people these days, but enough is enough.
I’m white, and when my sister and I were little the “bad” kids next door taught us this eye-pulling thing where you would go, “My mother’s Chinese, my father’s Japanese” and pull the corners of your eyes up for one and down for the other — it didn’t matter which — and then, “And I’m all mixed up” — one eye up and one eye down. I remember showing it to my mother, expecting her to laugh, and she just said, “Ugh, don’t do that.” No one ever said it was racist, and I assumed it was just that it was “bad” in the same way a dirty playground rhyme was bad, or singing “We Will Rock You” on the bus and pounding on the seat in front of you to annoy the driver. In fact, maybe to her it was only as bad as that, because I can’t imagine her really objecting to something like it today — unless years of listening to right-wing talk radio has just made her worse than she was.
And I forgot all about it until a few months ago, when I saw the Miley Cyrus post on here. Even when I’d started to learn to recognize Asian stereotypes in movies and Asian caricatures as racist, I never remembered it or made that connection. I made it all the way to high school before I ever had an Asian classmate (final total: three, two of them foreign-exchange students), so I can’t think when I would have had the chance to do the “I’m all mixed up” face to an Asian kid, and I hope that even if I was that clueless I wouldn’t have been that mean. But I’m sorry for all the times my sister and my next-door neighbors and I did it for each other’s amusement in my front yard, and I promise that if I ever see a kid I know doing an eye-pull or a mock-Asian accent or singing that song, they’ll get a better explanation for why it’s “bad” than I did.
Thanks so much, Restructure! I am an amateur musician and this information is actually quite musically fascinating, as well as sociologically important. It’s yet another dimension of stereotype as cultural meme–the melody/riff/leitmotif as stereotype. Who knew just a few notes could be used to symbolize racial hatred?
Misspelled,
when my sister and I were little the “bad” kids next door taught us this eye-pulling thing where you would go, “My mother’s Chinese, my father’s Japanese” and pull the corners of your eyes up for one and down for the other — it didn’t matter which — and then, “And I’m all mixed up” — one eye up and one eye down.
I had something similar shown to me when I was younger, except it was by a fellow Chinese American kid. I hate non-Asian racists, but I *really* hate Asian self-haters.
I am not surprised that Toby Keith did this. Like all the other posters I just assumed he was racist…that’s pretty stereotypical of me, but his song lyrics and the audience he plays to just gives me that vibe.
It shocks me how disrespectful people are towards Asians. One of my friends had this ridiculous experience where the janitor that services her office (she is an attorney at a large law firm) came right up to her and said, “Excuse me, can you tell me where I can get some more of this tea?” My friend was not really paying attention b/c she was busy and the janitor repeated herself “Can you read this and tell me where I can get some more of this tea?!” and puts it in her face. The tea bag had some Chinese writing on it. My friend is Korean. When she said, “Um, I can’t read that.” the woman was visibly upset at her. She said it was kind of like the woman didn’t believe that she couldn’t read it and thought that my friend was just being mean and refusing to help her find more tea. There are just…so many things wrong with that whole experience. And a white person would never ever be subjected to that. Just think, the woman specifically put the tea in her pocket thinking ‘oh hey, I know a Chinese person [b/c of course all Asians are 'Chinese'] I’ll ask her about it. Can you imagine??!!
People seem to think its ok to do or say racist things against Asians b/c its “safer” or somehow “less offensive” than being racist against other groups. I hate Toby Keith. He sucks.
Elton and co, I’ve previously described that little orientalist melody as “Musical Yellowface”.
Obviously all Asians have been confronted innumerable times with the eye-pull, but what I haven’t seen mentioned is that some of us closely associate that gesture with the onset of violence, because I can’t tell you how many fistfights I got into over the years in the wake of such interaction. For me, “ching chong” and eye-pull are more than intellectually offensive; they’re signals that it’s time to physically defend yourself. At least that’s how it was when I was growing up.
Peace.
Not that I am advocating violence, but the reason its always open season on Asians is because we are seen as willing to take it and not make a fuss. Simple as that. I am glad this website does try to open dialogue on these issues. It gives us hope….
Hey, I just realized the “proto-cliché” of the Oriental riff appears in the other Racialicious post, The Truth of Lagerfeld’s Idea of China. It’s the second video (part 2), at about 6:06. So even in 2009, white people like to perpetuate racist, Orientalist (proto) clichés that originated in the 1800s.
There’s a word for this kind of thing. It rhymes with “buckery.”
That a country artist is allowed to do such a thing doesn’t surprise me. The genre, to many insensitive and racist people, represents “real” Americana (IE “good old fashioned values,” being a member of the working class, and the monoethnic heartland teh city folk are encroaching on); this makes it highly unlikely that any of them would speak out about these incidents.
@Elton: I always thought that the part of the “model minority” stereotype that was being played up wasn’t success making Asians immune to being victims of racism as much as it was the assumption that part of their success came from being “docile” in comparison to other ethnic groups.
Case in point: my friend “J” told me about a snowboarding trip he and the other members of the AASA on campus took. On the way back, they stopped at Denny’s and were seated next to a group of “rednecks.” The racial jokes, crappy faux Asian theme, and eye pulling started immediately. They were daring them to do something about it and offered a barely veiled threat of violence if they did.
The restaurant staff pretended nothing was happening.
My friends got agitated and someone suggested that a physical defense of themselves may be in order if it escalated. I didn’t blame them: a pacifist sometimes has to do just that–pass a fist upside someone’s head.
What killed us ALL was the fact that when the waitress heard that, she told the manager, and who proceeded to threaten THEM with the police. Not the guys talking about dragging them behind their car, throwing stuff at their table, and making inappropriate comments about the ladies in the group.
This was naked and out in the open. Not in some backwater town with no name and a population of less than 50. A big city.
“Just because he puts on a cowboy hat and has a white face, he is empowered with all the down-home country goodness and positive connotations that go with that, just because of his appearance”
Really though, to that demographic the rest of America that doesn’t idealize the faux-patriotism of the neverquestioning wal-mart aggro-cowboy stereotype aren’t “real” ‘merkuns either, regardless of color.
What are you all so offended about? It was just a joke. Lighten up. You’re all so uptight. WHy are you making it about race? you’re the REAL racists.
/snark
Yeah, I don’t even know who the fuck Toby Keith is, but this is gross and everyone saying “no one at the party was offended” doesn’t change how fucking offensive it is, Jesus Christ. I mean, you could hang a noose from a treeand all the officials at the school could say it’s not offensive and not racially motivated, but um, that doesn’t change the fact that it is.
It’s true, Asians also have to deal with both covert and overt racism, and this is clearly an example of the overt. I cannot believe how people think this doesn’t matter.
And the “Japanese-Chinese” rhyme, I grew up in Japan and went to international school and people did it all the fucking time. It didn’t make any sense to me, and I never thought it was funny…it still isn’t and I CANNOT BELIEVE that is ACCEPTABLE TO MAKE FUN OF PEOPLE’S RACIAL ATTRIBUTES. Ughhhhhhhhhhh
I went snowboarding with a large group of Asian and Asian-Am. friends. I’m black. There was one other non-Asian in the group.
I was shocked to see how long little white kids were staring a us. Some even did the “eye gesture.” Their parents looked visibly upset.
They even wanted to stop at Denny’s!!! I had to tell them to keep driving. We ate near our campus in major city.
Can someone tell me why they didn’t seem to notice any of this going on like I did. If they did why weren’t they upset? Why is this?
Toby Keith at a Nobel Prize event? LMAO!
CocoLoco, I can’t speak for your Asian friends because I wasn’t there and didn’t see how it all went down, but I can venture a guess: they were there to snowboard, not to hold an anti-racist workshop. Sometimes the most powerful option in a fucked up world is to leave asshats in the dust (or powder) and proceed to enjoy your day.
“So even in 2009, white people like to perpetuate racist, Orientalist (proto) clichés that originated in the 1800s.”
A polite request – how about saying people in general like to perpetuate racist orientalist cliches rather than white people.
Because I’m white, work with white people, socialise with white people, and none of them would see toby keith’s actions as okay.
CocoLoco,
I can’t speak for your Asian friends either, but maybe they are used to it because it happens all the time. When I visit small towns, people stare at me, but I pretend not to notice. (But what I’m I supposed to do, talk back to every single person? Then they would think that all Asians are uncouth, and other Asians who come after me would suffer the consequences.)
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of New Demographic, a diversity education firm. Her perspectives on race and diversity have been featured on CNN, MSNBC, NPR, USA Today, and The New York Times.
The Orientalist Riff is an example of white culture and tradition. « Restructure! on 21 Dec 2009 at 10:03 am
[...] Racialicious commenter Elton writes (17 Dec 2009): Just yesterday, I was at Walmart, shopping for Christmas, when a kid walking by gave me a suspicious look and, as he walked away, sang what I call the “Chinese Stereotype Melody.” I have no idea where it came from, but Asian Americans probably know what I’m talking about. It goes something like, “da-da-da-da duh duh, duh duh, da” and has been used in countless shows and movies (often accompanied by fake martial arts, a gong sound, bowing, fake Chinese words, and just all around mockery of Chinese people, and, by extension, all Asians). [...]