TMZ Goes Racist
In an attempt to be more racist towards Asians than Miley Cyrus, TMZ ran the following headline over the weekend about a beauty pageant winner who is suing the event's organizers.
Miss Vietnam USA Claims Pageant No Pay Her
Yes, just like Miley believes all Asians can barely see out of their eyes, TMZ apparently believes that all Asians cannot speak a grammatically correct sentence. The shocking thing about this is that despite hundreds of comments pleading with TMZ to pull the headline, they have chosen to ignore, what is to me, extremely insulting and overtly racist. For the past two months, TMZ has been relentlessly bringing up the Miley Cyrus scandal and taking shots at her about it whenever they can bring it into an article. Obviously they thought they could do a better job of insulting Asians and so have taken it upon themselves to do so.
TMZ is a site read by millions of people each day, and now they have, by this headline and their refusal to remove it, said they are the arbiter of what is racist and what isn't in society. They judged Miley racist, but apparently in their own eyes this is perfectly acceptable. It isn't.
Sometimes I think we focus too much on being politically correct, but this is not one of those times. TMZ saw an Asian face and made the joke. They don't know the woman. Why is it they assume all Asians speak like that? Do your Asian friends speak like that? If they had made a similar remark about African Americans would there be more outrage? Would they have dared make a similar remark about African Americans? Of course not. So, why is it ok to be racist towards Asians?
34 comments:
I'm very disappointed in you, TMZ. :(
If they had made a similar remark about African Americans would there be more outrage?
I doubt it.
Would they have dared make a similar remark about African Americans? Of course not.
Yes.
Surprisingly most racists remarks about African American do not have positive results. They may start off as a big to do but end up falling by the wayside.
If the offender says "I didn't mean it that way" or "You people are taking it way too seriously", or "No I'm not apologizing" it's over.
If you follow the incidents more closely there is no satisfactory resolution.
America has yet to "walk the walk" with African Americans.
If it's a quick fix, sure everyone's supportive. However if it requires too much work the incident is dropped.
Oh and TMZ has always been a piece of s--t in my book. I don't follow anything that they put out.
If anyone heard her speak, they would know she doesn't talk that way. They're probably just doing an "outrage" survey to see who will fall for it. TMZ is worthless bandwidth and airtime.
not surprised here! btw...
tmz's and perez hilton's messageboards are a snapshot of the dumbest people we have in this country. people hiding behind a computer.
btw, when the asian COMMUNITY lit into rosie's ass on the view that time, she apologized.
so maybe instead of making pleas on the messageboard, letters from the community and airtime via news stations, would light a fire and cause tmz to act accordingly?
ummm... people do this with the way black peple talk ALL THE TIME. Everytime there is a black person on a t.v show or movie, every non-black peron suddenly begins using the words "bro" or "my brutha", and saying shit like "ya feel me?" and "check it" and giving props...
Granted, this is kinda fucked up, but i disgree with the african american reference.
So commenters on here have even "joked" that all black artists smoke pot. Why is that ok, when this is such an outrage?
TMZ's been straight up misogynist for as long as I've read it with no one calling them out, I'm not surprised they've branched out to what they view as "funny" racism.
And yeah, jeez, tmz comments and x17 online comments: reason enough to create a button that would allow you to sterilize someone through the computer screen.
I would expect nothing less, or lower, from TMZ.
I think they are trying to be The Onion and failing because...well...they're not The Onion.
Speaking of which, there is a fantastic scene in The Onion Movie where a panel debates the racial stereotypes in the film. First they ask the african american guy what he thinks and he answers very eloquently that he is upset by the portrayal of black people in the movie as gangsters, drug addicts and illiterates.
Then they move on to the asian guy asking him how he feels about how asians are made to look in the movie. He thinks about it for a second, then answers:
"Uum...me no rikey".
I think it's OK to joke about almost anything. But it has to be in the right context. The Onion is a humour site, and a very intelligent one. TMZ is a celebrity gossip site and should not attempt humour of any kind, but especially racial and or sexist humour.
I saw Kirstie Alley talking the other day about how a TMZ photog came after her at the airport, calling her 'fatass.' She maintained that the way these people speak to celebs and the like is out and out abusive, and I'm inclined to believe her. I can't imagine why Harvey Levin, who is supposed to be a lawyer, would allow this kind of behaviour. Then, there's this racist thing...totally boggles my mind.
Right now, I'm thinking this is the only blog I read in which the person who writes shows a consistent sense of fairness, never stooping to the sophomoric antics that TMZ and Perez Hilton seem to.
Not sure we're ever going to get away from one race ridiculing another, seems to be such a simple thing that no one has the smarts to get over, but when it's blatant like this, someone needs to be held accountable.
Oh, and also, Miss Vietnam is undeniably breathtaking.
Thank you Enty for pointing this out. Your sense of justice is part of what makes this the only gossip blog I read anymore.
And I agree that there would be a big outcry--at least in the African American community-- if there were a similar headline about an African American. If the headline about an African American beauty pageant winner was, "Miss Louisiana Claims Pageant Done Never Axed Her To Be Red To Go," people would justifiably be ticked off. This headline is just as blatant--and as ENty points out, hypocritical. THey've spent six months criticizing Miley for a facial expression--and now they put the same idea in writing.
A**holes.
@ Harriet
Is it just me or did you imply that gossip sites shouldn't attempt humour? I hope I am reading that wrong cause that is just crazy talk. I mean, Ent is always trying for the laughs.
I cannot support Harriet's Law
If DListed ever stopped the humor I would resign from Internetland forever.
That's what I'm saying, Jillian. Imagine if MK stopped his snark. Yikes.
DListed is hilarious but I can't imagine MK stooping low enough to try and pull off racist humor.
MK is gay and knows what it's like to be stereotyped. He's pretty sensitive and understanding about racism.
My whole life I've had to deal with this BS. And each time that I've called them out and voiced my outrage, I get: "Relax, it's just a joke."
I hate people.
Girly I understand sometime I hate people too. :)
Oh and Harvey acts like he has an invisible shield around him. I wonder if it's because TMZ is owned by Warner Bros.?
@ not on my dollar:
MK constantly makes fun of Chola's, I'm sure somewhere that could be construed as racist banter.
Sometimes I think we focus too much on being politically correct, but this is not one of those times. TMZ saw an Asian face and made the joke. They don't know the woman. Why is it they assume all Asians speak like that? Do your Asian friends speak like that? If they had made a similar remark about African Americans would there be more outrage? Would they have dared make a similar remark about African Americans? Of course not. So, why is it ok to be racist towards Asians?
FINALLY! A SMART PERSON WHO UNDERSTANDS HOW ASIANS FEEL WHEN PEOPLE BRUSH OFF RACIST REMARKS TOWARDS ASIANS!
LOVE YOU ENTY!
When I first saw that on tmz, i had to look twice. I could not believe they would put that headline up and get away with it, and I saw no other "news" (gossip...) media that even mention it... TG for Enty!
When I first saw that on tmz, i had to look twice. I could not believe they would put that headline up and get away with it, and I saw no other "news" (gossip...) media that even mention it... TG for Enty!
MK is of Chola and Asian descent; he understands the plight of the people.
I wonder how much Vietnamese the TMZ people speak. Or any second language, for that matter.
lol @ Jillian's "plight of the people". Maybe TMZ is trying to be more like Michael K? Impossible - he is one of a kind. That being said, I agree with Jungle007, SueEllen and Jillian.
TMZ has been pulling this shit every once in awhile when it's a 'slow news day' for hits.
and you all fell for it. They made a crack about blacks AND jews b4.
FYI- TMZ doesn't have tons of cameras out there, those are 'freelance' guys and everyone calls them TMZ guys. If you watch the show, many times Harvey will call out a photog for being ignorant.
DListed and CDAN are both gossip sites with intelligent writers that often incorporate humour in their articles. I think that's great. It's why I read the sites. TMZ is not really a writer's site though. It's mostly pictures and blurbs. That's why I thought a sudden outburst of borderline unacceptable racial humour does not fit in on that site. Like I said, humour is all about context for me, or about who made a certain joke. It can be more or less offensive. I am not a person of colour but I am female and I am round of figure. I laugh at fat jokes and misogynistic jokes - some times. Depending on where they came from.
But, it must be said, that if you ever happen upon TMZ when it's on television, there's no denying that Max is pretty.
TMZ is the CNN of Hollywood and that's it, don't expect much more and you won't be dissapointed.
if you want to know who just died while they are still warm, hit up TMZ.
The Laotian gals I work with who have been here since
1975 talk EXACTLY like that. They were teenagers when they got here. Their children do not speak that way.
I used to work with a bunch of vietnamese guys, and about 3/4 of the older guys wouldn't speak to me at all - they'd run for an interpreter as soon as I said, "chow boi sang". The other 1/4 spoke regular english, with a few little struggles over words, but not articles.
I tend to look at it this way: if someone is making fun of someone I know, I don't like it.
I guess that's how we all are.
Who cares? I am asian and find it annoying when people make it all seem worse than it actually is.
Like Jungle007 said, it does happen to blacks all the time. I observe white people (who suddenly just can't help it I think) start talking differently as soon as they see a black friend. It isn't a hateful action at all.
We are all going to die anyways.
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