Jason Chu On The La Jolla Playhouse Controversy

Lyrics:

I hear “nothing’s more American than immigrating in

“Working hard is more important than the color of your skin”

But if that’s true, why are the faces that look like me

Always involved in takeout, kung fu, or exotic villainy?

I mean, we wear the same clothes and we do the same things

And we talk the same way – but it was never a real dream

For me to be Friends with Rachel, Joey, or Ross

And “Jason Chu” was not the answer to the question, “Who’s the Boss?”

Even on Cheers, where everybody was supposed to know my name

I never heard a Chu, Nguyen, Kim, Loke, or Chang

So I concluded that Asian faces are only right

If we’re talking about rice, or a high-tech device

I mean, I just saw the Dark Knight Rise

And I cheered every time that I saw an Asian face – twice

This is why we don’t win: the systems that we’re in

If we build separate communities, we’re viewed as aliens

But if we try to play along, we have no hope of blending in

They’ll never let John Wayne be played by John Kim

But The Airbender was Noah Ringer, and Goku was Justin Chatwin

And the whole cast of Akira was gonna be played by white men

But I have never seen a role with a European name

Be filled by an Asian with the excuse “we cast for talent, not for race”

So the La Jolla playhouse can say anything they want

In the end, I don’t see action, so I conclude it’s just a front

For the same attitude that I’ve always seen out there

Because “color-blind” is just a nicer way to say “we don’t care”

Background here and here.