OK, when ESPN spends a lot of time reporting on this Yao/Shaq insensitivity thing-it’s getting wwwaaayyy out of hand in our society [1]. Do you know how many times a month I have people asking me to talk like Apu Nahasapeemapetilon?. I mean, I can do it, so I indulge them. Laughs all around. I mean, I make jokes about Irish people being drunks (sorry Jason M. & duende), who am I to protest? (I spent my grade school years in Albany, NY, dominated by an Irish Catholic machine political system and most of my classmates were from working class Celtic backgrounds)
Just watched the Houston-L.A. game on T.V.-did you see Yao’s huge Chinese parents (I think they were his parents?) in the stands? They were clapping in the most subdued Asian manner. It was hilarious to me for some reason, they were like no other parents I’d seen being focused in on by the cameras during game-time….
[1] And what is not being said is that our society does have a milder standard for making fun of east, south and west Asians than say for Latin Americans, and especially for black Americans (imagine Yao doing some faux ebonics). But, I’m all for keeping that mild standard intact, I think one reason that whites and Asians get along in the US is that whites are less stressed out about offending them. “Sensitivity” tends to put up barriers between groups I think, rather than relaxing tensions. And if there’s one thing I oppose with a passion, it is barriers between me & women of northern European heritage on account of “sensitivity” (though true, “sensitivity” can be turned to one’s advantage….)
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