In a comic strip titled "Secret Asian Man" on March 28, The Cavalier Daily published a comic that relied on a common stereotype of Asian Americans for its humor. The paper subsequently issued a public apology for its cultural and racial insensitivity. Shortly after the apology, columnist Kristin Brown argued in her April 11 column, "Lighten up," that the strip was simply "good-natured ribbing" and intended nothing more. Judging from Brown's interpretation, it would appear as though a large number of students at this University have suddenly lost the ability to take a joke.
The gravity of an ostensibly innocent cartoon seems absolutely incomprehensible to the columnist and the artist.For people whose American identities and loyalty are assured by their physical appearance, ethnic jokes may be riotously funny.But for other Americans whose citizenships are perpetually questioned because they look foreign, ethnic jokes are hurtful and patronizing. In the case of Asian Americans, Linguist Rosina Lipp-Green argues in "English with An Accent," there is a "special stigma attached to their presence which is externalized in reactions to the way they speak English."
In fact, so conditioned are we to expect a different worldview, a different accent, that we unfailingly hear one even when none is present. Thus the issue, as Howard University Law Professor Frank Wu maintains, isn't so much that Asian Americans simply perceive discriminations as a result of these "jokes," it is instead the reality that they experience discrimination. If I had a dollar for every time someone complimented me on my excellent command of English, the rest of my stay at the University would be free.
According to Brown, the generality portrayed apparently was not meant to "target [Asian Americans] specifically, nor are they meant to be taken as a serious indication of how the rest of the world views" Asian Americans. The cartoonist simply "capitalized on a common misconception which everyone knows is so ridiculous, it's comical." The glaring contradiction in that statement must first be addressed, for as we all know, a common misconception is a widely held false belief. By definition, most people do not realize that their misconceptions are ridiculous. Otherwise, in what sense would these misconceptions be common? The fact remains that many were angered at the cartoon, and that fact, quite frankly, is all that matters.The cartoonist's intentions here are irrelevant to this discussion, because we judge actions based on their results. How many times have we all heard that the road to hell is paved with good intentions?
A newspaper cartoon and a simple joke between friends are not intrinsically equal. Because the newspaper circulates through the entire community and lacks intimate knowledge of its audience, no one can be certain about a message's reception. The social reality of this stereotype affects the everyday life of Asian-American students, your social and academic peers. To be seen as inherently inassimilable, inherently different and thus inherently non-American, I assure you, is hardly funny. The perpetual foreigner stereotype represses, oppresses and, at its most egregious, kills. Before we forget, Vincent Chin, a Chinese American, was clubbed to death on June 19, 1982, for looking like "one of those." Just because a stereotype has "been part of mainstream media for years" does not render it inculpable. As rising leaders of this nation, is it not our job to challenge institutionalized injustice, or was I the only one who missed the memo on proliferating tyranny?
By printing "Secret Asian Man," The Cavalier Daily angered many students, many of whom belong to the Asian- Pacific-American community. The very fact that Kristin Brown attempted to justify the comic's legitimacy shows that misconceptions, previously held in privacy, are now finding the courage to appear in public light. Of course, we all have the right to speak our minds and enjoy a good laugh. But in serving as signals to some students that it is permissible to express inaccurate views of Asian Americans, the comic and column undermined the seriousness of stereotyping, making the problem even more difficult to overcome.
(Huong Huynh is a second-year College student and president of the Asian Student Union.)
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