The internet (especially the Asian American internet) is abuzz over the Latest Stupid Man, Michigan Senatorial Candidate Pete Hoekstra. During the SuperBowl, he aired this inflammatory commercial featuring an Asian woman bicycling through a rice paddy and then smugly thanking Hoekstra’s incumbent opponent Debbie Stabenow: “Your economy get very weak. Ours get very good. We take your jobs!”
I have a bunch of thoughts on the ad itself, including:
1. What kind of a racist, xenophobic moron conceives of, produces, and approves this ad?
2. China owns 8% of the US’s debt; the vast majority is owned by Americans. Where’s the ad showing Americans smugly celebrating American debt to Americans?
3. The ad is clearly aimed at creating hate and fear; does anyone think that the Chinese truly have this smug, celebrational, anti-American attitude? Chinese people just want to work hard and get nice stuff, kind of like…Americans. Or anybody else.
4. Considering this was made for a Michigan candidate, maybe Hoekstra shouldn’t have outsourced all the work on his campaign (website, commercial production, etc.) to companies outside of the state of Michigan.
5. Should I shine a spotlight on this hateful ad, or should I ignore it and let it go away on its own?
6. FOR GOD’S SAKE, DID THEY REALLY HAVE TO HAVE THE GONG AND THE CHING-CHONG MUSIC???
The Asian American community understandably has also put a lot of attention on the actress in the commercial (for her execution of the Chinese accent as well being a “sell out”). I completely get the criticism of her; I wish she hadn’t done it, but mostly, I feel bad for her. I’m guessing that she had no idea of the ramifications of this role. She must have been a little uncomfortable with the character and had to be aware of its Anti-Asian sentiment, but probably thought that it was going to be an innocuous commercial that nobody would think about in Michigan, much less outside of Michigan. And now, much of the internet (especially the Asian American internet) is wondering who she is.
She’ll get outted eventually, and I do wonder what will happen then. Will she be contrite and apologetic? Might she be blase and wondering what the fuss is about? I don’t know. But I do hope that people aren’t too hard on her. It’s tough for an actor at any level to turn down a job, much less a beginning actor, especially knowing that if you turn the job down, there will be somebody who will take the job. Turning down the acting job doesn’t eliminate the job–it just eliminates you from the job. A beginning actor also lacks perspective–could this commercial be the start of something big for her? Might this commercial lead to fame? (and yes it did, but infamy isn’t quite the same as fame).
I view her with disappointment, but my anger is reserved for the schmucks who wrote, produced, and approved the commercial. They created a racist message to incite fear and anti-Asian hatred, and they knew what they were doing every step of the way. I don’t hate the player, I hate The Man.
And Pete Hoekstra, you are a Stupid, Stupid Man.
Vic Chao 