Salon.com: The burden to “fix” racism does not fall on the very people it marginalizes. But it appears some people have forgotten this, as Asian-American actor Chloe Bennet — who currently plays Daisy Johnson in “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” — found herself on the defensive for changing her surname.
6 comments:
I do not have a Chinese last name (rather, a just-as-chronically-mispronounced French one), but I can relate to the struggle of fighting unconscious racism. I am half Chinese, but my DNA translates that to a vaguely Asian "look". In high school, I was confused with a couple of my other mixed-race, Asian heritage friends, mostly by white teachers. I did not suffer the same type casting as some of my friends that had more Asian-sounding names, but I compensated for a vaguely Asian look by embracing more publicly that side of my heritage. I don't think teachers realize the effect their unconscious bias has, but it sort of made the several of us that were often confused with each other (even after a couple years with the teacher!) feel interchangeable, and that led to a more impersonal relationship with the instructor.
I’m a huge fan of Chloe Bennet (and admittedly a fan of Agents of SHEILD but I’ll deny it if you ask me). She’s been a very outspoken advocate for Asian and Asian-American actors for a long time, and I’ve always admired her candidness. But regardless of my feelings toward Bennet, this whole twitter exchange points to a much larger issue which is: STOP TELLING PEOPLE HOW TO HANDLE THEIR OWN OPPRESSION!!!!!! It is no one’s business to decide how anyone handles systematic oppression and marginalization. At all. Whatsoever. And especially if they are not actively contributing to oppression, but instead using their platform to speak out. This world sucks, and I’m sure it sucks even more if you’re an Asian-American actress. So however Chloe Bennet chooses to deal with that is her business. And sometimes you have to do what you have to do. I’m proud of both Ed Skrein and Chloe Bennet and every other Hollywood actor who speaks out against appropriation, white-washing, and lack of diversity.
I'm also half-Asian (half Japanese, half white), so this is a really interesting article to me. When racism is discussed, it often has to do with Black people. But I've noticed more and more throughout the years that people, and specifically the entertainment industry, is hugely racist towards Asians. Asians aren't pretty, Asians are smart and shy or embarrassingly/"comedically" clueless background characters, never ever main characters and rarely even the friend of the main character. They're represented as Kevin Gs ("Mean Girls") or Mr. Yunioshis ("Breakfast at Tiffany's," appallingly, a white man played this character if it wasn't already bad enough). Asian people are laughed at on the internet, most of the time just for looking Asian, "funny" and "different." My name is Truly Cates, not very Asian. My family calls me by my middle name, Mei, which is Japanese but still doesn't sound out of the ordinary, but I still sympathize with this actor. I think every Asian in America has been made fun of before for how they look, what food they're eating, etc., but when your job depends on the people who may have been the elementary school bullies or at the very least have some racist tendencies, do you give up your name to represent your heritage on screen, or do you stick with your name and never make it that far?
This article is, frankly, inflammatory and absurd. While I agree that racism in Hollywood does exist, and has existed since films because a mainstream form of media, for Chloe Bennet to claim that her last name would prevent her from getting roles is incorrect. There is a long history of Hollywood casting Asian-American actors who kept their last name. In her post Bennet writes “Hollywood is racist, and wouldn’t cast me with a last name that made them uncomfortable.” Bennet has clearly never done ANY research on the history of Asian Americans in films. Here is a BRIEF list of Asian Americans who kept their original last names and were still cast multiple times in a variety of different films and television shows: Miyoshi Umeki, Haing S. Ngor, Pat Morita, Ken Watanabe, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Sandra Oh, Ziyi Zhang, Masi Oka, Lucy Lui. This list of actors and actresses include Asian American who starred in films and television shows dating back from the 1960’s and some are working on recent Hollywood films. It is obvious that many of these actors have much more “foreign” sounding first and last names than Chloe Wang. Her entire argument can be dismantled with a simple Google search.
What I appreciate about this article is that this is a small tidbit into one Asian American's experience in Hollywood. I recently read a different article about an Asian american playing Ariel in The Little Mermaid Tour and I definitely believe that whitewashing and racism are very apparent in Hollywood.
Arnie was told his name would never fly and was Arnold Strong in his first film, i would say he is pretty much the poster boy for Aryan ideal looks so if he had to play ball it is hardly surprising others had to.
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