9940: Silly Sushi Symbolism.

Hey, is this a tribute to Japanese-American contributions to the creation of railroads throughout the Pacific Northwest?

From Ads of the World.

9856: Stereotypical View On Stereotypes.

The New America series from Adweek, Draftfcb and the U.S. Census Bureau included a perspective titled, “Is Including A Stereotype Inclusive Enough?” For this piece, Draftfcb looked beyond its staff and U.S. Census Bureau press releases, tapping Caroline Ceniza-Levine to ponder culture-infused comedy and minority representation in media. Guess it would have been too outrageous to find an actual Draftfcb executive to comment on the topic, as the agency is notorious for displaying insensitivity and cultural cluelessness. Ceniza-Levine is of Filipino descent, and she mused on Asian characters in popular programs. Wonder how she’d feel about Draftfcb’s work for KFC.

Is Including A Stereotype Inclusive Enough?

When are you allowed to joke about another minority? Never

By Caroline Ceniza-Levine

When I took an intro to comedy class, my very experienced comedy teacher had a strict rule: you can make fun of your own race, gender, or ethnicity but nobody else’s. When a Korean classmate made fun of her long-time Jewish boyfriend? Not allowed. When a white classmate with a series of Dominican boyfriends made snarky observations about them? Not allowed. We see this play out in everyday life: communication among people of the same race, gender or ethnicity can push the envelope in a way that people communicating with races, genders or ethnicities outside of their own cannot.

It might not be such a horrible thing to insist that only those of the same race, gender or ethnicity be allowed free rein on jokes or snark. Do I really want to encourage what might devolve into a slur-fest? I’m of Filipino descent, but, if I’m looking for more representation in media and advertising of Filipinos (or Asians in general), then I either need to lift my only-Filipinos-can-talk-about-Filipinos rule or hope and pray that there is a Filipino writer on Louie or a Filipino creative director for The Gap. How many Filipino executives are calling the shots for media programming or advertising campaigns?

Therein lies the conundrum. I don’t like it when non-Filipinos comment about Filipinos. At the same time, I’d love to see more of us in mainstream media, and I don’t want to wait until we fix the diversity in hiring behind-the-scenes before we can fix the diversity in front of the camera. Who knows how long true parity in hiring for all positions will take?

Furthermore, I don’t want to suggest that one Filipino can speak for all. I certainly couldn’t fill that role, as I was born in the U.S., don’t speak Tagalog, and haven’t visited the Philippines for over 20 years. I have a blended family of my own, so my kids are even further removed. How much pull does a fractional Filipino have? Then again, we’re talking about entertainment, not an academic dissertation. Do we really have to be the thing we make observations about (comedy class notwithstanding)? Do we need statistically significant sampling for every cross-cultural reference?

Does lack of representation behind the scenes lead to stereotyping in the content? I don’t want Filipinos to only play the nurse in a hospital show or the straight-A student in the high school show. Yet, I was giddy with excitement at the casting of Sandra Oh on Grey’s Anatomy and Harry Shum, Jr. on Glee.

My kids are growing up with The Wonder Girls, Phineas and Ferb and Suite Life, all with active Asian characters. When I was growing up, there were no Filipina nurses on ER or Asians at all in Head of the Class. So my kids feel more included. Asians aren’t invisible anymore. Of course, the Wonder Girls are trying to assimilate, Baljeet in Phineas and Ferb is super-smart with a thick Indian accent that borders on caricature, and London Tipton of Suite Life has her riches from her white dad (her mom’s side is Asian and of course they work in the fields). So my kids are included, but stereotyped. Is that good enough?

When I was younger and fawning over my movie, TV, and magazine idols, I would have loved to see Asians in mainstream media, even stereotypes. So I’ll take Baljeet and Mike Chang’s Asian F (as in getting an A- instead of an A) as a sign of progress. But we’ve still got a long way to go.

Caroline Ceniza-Levine is a co-founder of SixFigureStart and a stand-up comic with Comic Diversity.

9805: ESPN Displays Linsensitivity.

Add ESPN to the list of idiots engaging in Linsensitivity. The iconic sports network posted a racist headline on its mobile website that prompted the following official statement on its regular website:

Last night, ESPN.com’s mobile web site posted an offensive headline referencing Jeremy Lin at 2:30 am ET. The headline was removed at 3:05 am ET. We are conducting a complete review of our cross-platform editorial procedures and are determining appropriate disciplinary action to ensure this does not happen again. We regret and apologize for this mistake.

9796: The Linsensitivity Continues.

Brought to you by MSG Network.

9788: Jason Whitlock Is A Witless Twit.

From Bleacher Report…

Jeremy Lin: Why Are We Letting Jason Whitlock off the Hook for His Tweet?

By Trevor Medeiros

As an Asian-American who has spent his entire life growing up in an urban setting, hearing demeaning ethnic stereotypes hurled in my direction is something I’ve become totally accustomed to.

“Hey, Yao Ming, pass the ball!”

“Don’t get all Jackie Chan on me!”

“Does he speak English?”

Maybe it’s because of my non-confrontational demeanor or because I’m so used to it that I usually don’t care when I hear this Asian-American stereotypical rhetoric staining my eardrums. And that’s why I wasn’t exactly outraged when I read Fox Sports columnist Jason Whitlock’s Linsensitive tweet (see, I can get in on the clever wordplay games, too!) pointed towards New York Knicks point guard, NBA sensation and Asian-American Jeremy Lin recently.

But the more I think about the aftermath of Whitlock’s tweet, the more I’m surprised that he isn’t receiving more backlash for his insulting one-liner.

Let’s get this straight: Whitlock has made a habit out of adding comedic flair and introducing issues of race to his columns for years.

However, this doesn’t give Whitlock the right to tweet a misguided joke that essentially degrades an entire race of human beings. And Whitlock followed that up by posting a half-hearted, half-assed apology, only after a group with a bit of ethos (the Asian American Journalists Association) called him out on it.

And yet, as I write this, it seems like Whitlock is on the verge of emerging scot-free from this incident, which baffles me, to say the least.

What if it was a white columnist, say, Skip Bayless, and not the African-American Whitlock, tweeting about the size of Lin’s package? Call it prior precedent, journalistic intuition or simply common sense, but something tells me that Bayless would find himself in much hotter water than Whitlock finds himself in today.

(Full disclosure: Whitlock’s work was once prominently featured on Bleacher Report’s website, via Foxsports.com.)

I bring up prior precedent for the fact that Whitlock’s peers have been reprimanded in the past for their own racially-insensitive comments. In 2008, Golf Channel anchor Kelly Tilghman was suspended for two weeks for suggesting that some golfers should lynch Tiger Woods.

And in case you think I’m insinuating that only white journalists are punished for insensitive remarks, let me remind you of the Juan Williams incident. In 2010, the African-American Williams of Fox News was fired from National Public Radio over stereotypical comments directed towards Muslims.

Now, I’m not calling for Whitlock’s head on a silver platter. Too many times media outlets overact when one of their employees utter verbal gaffes.

But to punish the likes of Tilghman and Williams while letting Whitlock off the hook is hypocritical at best and racist at worst. It will tell me that you can expect to be punished when you bash African-Americans (like Tilghman did) and Muslims (like Williams did), but it’s OK to take to social media and talk in not-so-complimentary terms about an Asian-American point guard and his genitalia.

I told you that I don’t usually care all that much when I hear anti-Asian stereotypes flung about carelessly. But if supposedly reputable journalists like Jason Whitlock can fling them about carelessly and without consequences, maybe I—and much more of the public—should start caring after all.

9754: Enter The Dragon.

At The Big Tent, Bill Imada presents a perspective on “what the Year of the Dragon will mean to the world of advertising,” along with a series of advertisements celebrating the Lunar New Year.

9722: Chicken McBites McSucks.

This Mickey D’s Chicken McBites commercial demonstrates why multicultural advertising agencies should avoid doing vignette-style spots. It’s like, why are all the Asian Americans getting more excited over fried chicken than, say, African Americans?