Miley Cyrus Mocks Asians–Why We Need to Start Talking About Racism to the Young

Filed Under Pop Culture, Race and Racism by Rachel

Apparently teen star Miley Cyrus has been caught in a photo mocking Asians. Is this another “youthful indiscretion”?

A snapshot of Cyrus, 16, best known as the star of the Disney Channel show “Hannah Montana”, and friends posing with an Asian friend and pulling their eyes sideways surfaced on the Internet this week.

The OCA, a national organization in the United States dedicated to advancing the social and political welfare of Asian Pacific Americans, called on the singer-actress to apologize.

The group said the image “falls within a long and unfortunate history of people mocking and denigrating individuals of Asian descent.”

“Not only has Miley Cyrus and the other individuals in the photograph encouraged and legitimized the taunting and mocking of people of Asian descent, she has also insulted her many Asian Pacific American friends,” OCA executive director George Wu in a statement issued on Monday.

Wu said the fact that an Asian friend was included in the photo “does not make it acceptable.”

Representatives for Cyrus did not immediately return calls for comment on Tuesday.

She is relatively young, so I’m a little more sympathetic to the youthful indiscretion argument, but she’s old enough to have a sense of the offensive nature of making “slant eye” gestures.

As a culture, Americans need more avenues for young people to talk openly about racism and racially insensitive behavior. I wish we didn’t totally avoid race as a topic of discuss with the youth. As I write this I’m trying to think how I would explain the problems with this to a 9 year old Hannah Montana fan like my step son.

Comments

2 Responses to “Miley Cyrus Mocks Asians–Why We Need to Start Talking About Racism to the Young”

Adam on February 4th, 2009 9:52 pm

I’d be interested to know whether or not Disney responds to this.

Prof Rachel: As a fellow parent, I would to think I could help a little.

As parents we sometimes want to strike a balance between “appropriate exposure” and “protection”. Yet, exposing our children to those “little corrections” and those “little teaching opportunities” can pay dividends in the long haul.

I suppose your point of reference might be for him to recall a time when he (or someone he knew) was being made fun of for something. Well, unfortunately, Miley Cyrus made the same mistake. Sometimes we make mistakes without realizing we can hurt people. What should we do if we make mistakes that hurt people?

If your son is engaged in the conversation, you could take it one-step further and ask him what sort of attitude might cause a person to do that or act that way. By getting him to think about it a little you have accomplished a great deal.

I will air some dirty laundry on my home front:

I have a daughter going on 9 years old who also a Disney Channel junkie. I also caught her making that shape with her eyes a year or two ago. I asked her, “Sweetie, how do you think Alex and Daisy ( our friends from Tawain) would feel if they saw you do that?
Her answer was honest: “I don’t know…bad maybe?”

“Yes, dear. We shouldn’t be doing that anymore than you would want someone making fun of you for looking a certain way. You know how it feels to be made fun of, don’t you?” She understood.

Yours in the journey of parenting,

Adam
Miley Cyrus Thinks It’s Cool to Mock Asians at Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture on February 5th, 2009 11:01 am

[...] Rachel’s Tavern: As a culture, Americans need more avenues for young people to talk openly about racism and racially insensitive behavior. I wish we didn’t totally avoid race as a topic of discuss with the youth. As I write this I’m trying to think how I would explain the problems with this to a 9 year old Hannah Montana fan like my step son. [...]