I’m 90% sure I’ve written about this before, probably when Chris Rock decided it was a good idea to make a really tasteless joke at the expense of Asians at last year’s Oscars, but just because it was sung and danced about before doesn’t mean it’s ever okay for it to be sung and danced about any other time.
So when Steve Harvey decided it’s completely okay to imply that it’s a Christmas fucking miracle for Asian men to get non-Asian women to date, on national fucking television, it most certainly triggers some agitation within my person.
The thing is, I’ve never really had a problem with Steve Harvey. I’ve actually kind of liked Steve Harvey as a comedian; when he goes deadpan, it’s usually to good effect, and I’ve heard enough of his standup to know that there’s actually a brain capable of creating good material in that bald shiny noggin. I’ll admit that I’m not a fan of what he’s done with the Family Feud franchise, because I think with him as the host, the show has gone very low-brow, and often reaches for the low-hanging fruits of lame double entendres, sexual puns, and it’s obvious the survey is only asking people who hang out at douchey Midtown bars.
But that seems to be Steve Harvey’s MO these days; grasping at low-hanging fruit. After all, a whole lot of a little fruit equates to a whole lot of fruit in the end much the same, which is why we’re seeing so much Steve Harvey these days, hosting pageants and blowing the endings, morning talk shows, and apparently with his own talk show outright.
So I’m not really mad at Steve Harvey for grasping at the low-hanging fruit of making jokes at the expense of Asians, because that’s what he does – grasp at low-hanging fruit. I am disappointed, because I honestly thought, that a comedian as known as Steve Harvey was better than this.
Clearly, I have been mistaken.
But it all goes back to the point that these days, nobody is allowed to say shit about black people, because whether it’s a racist fear of black people, or fear of the wrath of the dreaded #blacklivesmatter, or perhaps all of the above, black people have become invulnerable to criticism or any sort of crosshairs. But Asians? Hispanics? Anyone who isn’t black or white? All fair game. That is legitimately, what it feels like to be someone that is neither black or white. Like a potential target for any sort of criticism, because we don’t fall into the group that is the majority, or into the group that has historically endured as massive amount of shit and has a magic card that protects them from any sort of scrutiny today.
And it’s not just black people who have carte blanche to take cheap shots at Asians and other minorities, but white people just fucking love to lecture Asians and other minorities about racial sensitivity, and I think Margaret Cho hits the nail on the head when she hypothesized that such is because white people are afraid to speak with black people about racism, that they take it out on Asians and other minorities.
It’s a bullshit double standard that I’ve probably already ranted about before, but because it keeps happening, it warrants a redux of words about how it’s fucking absurd that white people guilt on themselves so much already that they’re impervious to criticism, black people bitch and protest and uprise so much that everyone’s afraid to criticize them, but that leaves everyone else as fair game for targeted racism.
There’s always a chaotic part of me, that whenever shit like this happens, fantasizes about removing the filter, and letting all the white people and black people know how I feel, whenever I feel that they’re being a little too racist. But obviously I am smart enough and civil enough to restrain such thoughts, and that I do think I’m better than that, but unfortunately, this is a capability that many in the world are not.
Going back to Steve Harvey, his shit about Asians wasn’t even that funny. It’s pathetic the way he doubles over and laughs at his own jokes, because I was always under the belief that such was a really inappropriate thing for comics to do. It’s why Jimmy Fallon always got so much criticism when he was on SNL, because he couldn’t stop laughing at his own jokes. But clearly Steve Harvey thinks making fun of Asians is funny, so I guess it should be okay if I made a joke about black people, and how they’re like tornadoes because it only takes one to ruin a neighborhood ROFL.
See? Not really that cool, and kind of really not that funny, either. Fuck Steve Harvey.
