Taiwanese American NBA player Jeremy Lin spoke out on Twitter against Asian bashing at the Oscars. Asian celebrities and many major media are highlighting the slight to Asians that occurred amidst much discussion about how Academy Awards host Chris Rock handled the controversy over the Oscars being “so white”.
Rock spent much of the evening hitting on the need for diversity in Hollywood. But during the show, Rock brought three Asian children to the stage to pose as “bankers” from PricewaterhouseCoopers, the firm which tabulates the Oscar votes. Rock said, “They sent us their most dedicated, accurate and hardworking representatives.” Rock also said, “If anybody’s upset about the joke, just tweet about it on your phone that was also made by these kids.”
Many were unpleased about the stereotyping of Asians as math whizzes and the whimsical reference to child labor. Jeremy Lin tweeted, “Seriously though, when is this going to change?!? Tired of it being “cool” and “ok” to bash Asians.” “Fresh Off the Boat” actress Constance Wu also tweeted, “To parade little kids on stage w/no speaking lines merely to be the butt of a racist joke is reductive & gross.”
Though Rock touched many aspects of the need for diversity, he did it only from a black perspective, neglecting to acknowledge other minorities have similar issues as well.
Although the Oscars were criticized for being so white, it did give Mexican director Alejandro Inarritu his second best director award for The Revenant. In his acceptance speech, he spoke eloquently about diversity. He said, “What a great opportunity to our generation to really liberate ourselves from all prejudice and tribal thinking, and make sure for once and forever that the color of the skin becomes as irrelevant as the length of our hair.”
Taiwanese American director Ang Lee is the first non-Caucasian to win the best director award and the first Asian. He won the honor for Brokeback Mountain in 2005 and Life of Pi in 2012.