After dissecting the readings regarding blackface minstrelsy and Asian stereotypes from the past two weeks in class, it got me thinking about how we as a culture seem to be so aware and hyper sensitive to racist portrayals in modern media yet the majority of the time, it seems to be a Black vs. White issue and racist portrayals of other ethnicities don’t seem have caused as much as an uproar
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An example that comes to mind is actually drawn from one of my all time favorite films Breakfast at Tiffany’s and the infamous Mr. Yunioshi played by the one and only Mickey Rooney. I think this character is a great example because he hits on both the issues of blackface (in this case, yellowface) minstrelsy and the deeply embedded Asian stereotypes. Mickey Rooney, a Caucasian actor, "yellowed up", so to speak, for his role as the outrageous and easily agitated neighbor of Miss Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn). It’s amazing to me that a film that was, and still is, so influential in our society could also propagate such a glaring racist enactment. Id be hard pressed to find a dorm room today without the iconic image of Audrey Hepburn, dolled up to the nines in her Breakfast attire, plastered to the wall in some sort of homage to the adored film, and yet there is rarely any mention of her outrageously offensive buck toothed, slanty-eyed co-star. Of course, this isn’t to say that there hasn’t been any backlash against Rooney’s portrayal of the character, and in fact, there has been much modern criticism and protest concerning the Mr. Yunioshi character. Either way, the fact remains that even in 1961, mid-way through the civil rights movement in America, a time when you’d think American directors would be overly sensitive to race relations, this stereotypical character was still debuted on screen. It makes me wonder that if Mr. Yunioshi had not been Japanese, but instead African American, would there have been more of an immediate negative reaction? We’ve briefly mentioned in class the idea that racism in America seems to have taken on a black vs. white notoriety and somewhere in the shuffle, the racist portrayals of other ethnicities gets somewhat lost. Does the fact that slavery in the US was an African American vs., Caucasian affair overshadow racism towards other ethnicities? The Japanese internment camps were not our proudest moment either, and in relation to the premiere of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, a much more recent cultural abomination.
In fear of sounding naïve, is there a different value placed on racist acts between African Americans and Caucasians? Or is it that Black vs. White racism is a much more common occurrence?
3 comments:
When discussing Long Duck Dong in class on Thursday, I couldn't help thinking of Mr. Yunioshi. It's interesting you say that Mickey Rooney's character is hardly mentioned nowadays - I find that it is the one negative aspect of the film that can never be forgotten. In fact, on my Breakfast at Tiffany's DVD commentary, producer Richard Shepard states that it is the only thing he wishes he could change about the movie. While I don't know about the immediate backlash to the Mr. Yunioshi character, I did find this online:
Imagine an African-American character in 1961 being satirized that way. Like I've already mentioned, Rooney's portrayal was a throwback to WWII depictions of Japanese – it was over the top, even for 1961.
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474976809126
This person then directs the reader to the Amazon.com user commentary for the DVD, the majority of which are disapproving of the Mr. Yunioshi character, leaving behind some that find nothing wrong with it, including this comment left last month:
Mickey's character was not that racist, one must remember that the 2nd World War ended only 15 years back and many had had a bad time ( Hepburn ) or even participated in it in some sort of a way; who knows maybe the director or someone might have lost a relative or a friend, so the inclusion of this character was justifiable for that time.
http://www.amazon.com/Breakfast-Tiffanys-Special-Aniversary-Collectors/product-reviews/B000BTGY1O/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_helpful?ie=UTF8&coliid=&showViewpoints=1&colid=&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending
As you asked, I do wonder what the immediate criticism was about Mr. Yunioshi; furthermore, since this movie was based off of a Truman Capote novella, I wonder if that is where the character's roots really lie.
I don't think your question sounds naive. In my view, the portrayal of Mr. Yunioshi is not jusifiable for that time (1961) at all. It might be possible that people were and are more sensitive when it comes to racism that is directed against African Americans, but I don't believe that this type of racism is more offensive than the racism against Asian people. Obviously, Mickey Rooney's character is very offensive...
Yet it seems okay (as mentioned in another blog post) to laugh about Asians eating dogs etc.
I believe, this has to do with something else than different values of racism. The fact that people seem to be more aware of racism against African Americans might have its source in some kind of "historical guilt" that White Americans seem to feel towards African Americans. White kids are taught to feel that way when they learn about slavery at school and this might make them more sensitive as they grow up.
I wonder if my thoughts make sense to you at all because I don't know if this guilt really exists. I'm from Germany and as you all know, my country has a very dark historical chapter, too. WW2 and the Holocaust still affect German people in many ways. One example is the fact that most Germans (me included) are not patriotic at all and don't even understand why people from other countries like yours are proud of it. The first time that you could find many German flags in people's front yards again was the Soccer World Cup in 2006 which took place in Germany. During this World Cup, some people found the flags weird and others looked at it as a new and positive self-confidence. When it was over, most of the flags were gone, too.
German children learn so much about WW2 at school and they visit exhibitions and concentration camps that many of them feel ashamed and guilty for things their grandparents or great-grandparents might have done and they think that they are expected to feel that way.
White Americans possibly feel something similar and it makes them more aware of racist portrayals and stereotypes of African Americans.
Racism is a subject that many have varying opinions on. The black vs. white issue being the most prominent of them all, other issues tend to fall to the background. While reading last weeks articles on yellow-faced minstrelsy I was botch shocked and appalled at the treatment asian peoples were subjected to. The scalping ritual in particular seemed utterly barbaric. I cannot imagine living in a time and place where such things would be acceptable, yet perhaps years from now people will look back on our racism issues and say the same thing. We can only hope that as time goes on and awareness increases that treatment of someone differently simply based on the color of their skin will be a thing of the past. For now, I think it is important to acknowledge ALL types of racism so that there can be a more broad approach to solving these issues.
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