So last week, Stephen Colbert found out the hard way that, sometimes, that joke just isn't funny. He did a bit on one of his shows that attempted to show the hypocrisy of the Washington Redskins' management for creating a fund to help Native Americans. (Yes, we want to help you while we continue to refer to our team as the "redskins." Right.) But Colbert's mistake was to use Asian stereotypes to get this point across. This is what happens when you have a writing team comprised of primarily white men. I don't know if Colbert's team has any people of color or even any women on its writing staff, but I suspect if he did have some minorities, maybe (hopefully) one of them would have spoken up when this skit was put on the table and argued that a joke involving Asian stereotypes isn't the best way to expose racism against Native Americans. "But it's satire!" Colbert's fans argue. Yes, but at one point are you laughing AT me rather than laughing WITH me? That's what these folks don't get.
I am a big Colbert fan, but I think he failed with this one and people (Asian and non-Asians alike) were right to call him out on his bullshit. When you're at the helm, you need to steer the ship and Colbert needs to step up this week, admit an error in judgment was made, and apologize.
No comments:
Post a Comment