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Re: Boycott "Absolute Power"
On Tue, 18 Feb 1997, Anonymous Poster wrote:
> > BOYCOTT "ABSOLUTE POWER"
> >The new Clint Eastwood movie "Absolute Power" portrays Asians and African
> >American characters in negative racial stereotypes. The portrayal of the
> >Asian character, in particular, is degrading and insulting.
I rarely see any Asian character in Holywood movies that is portrayed
positively. So this ain't new.
However instead of crying-baby and demanding boycott which many of us
know, won't affect the overall portrayal of Asians in movies anyway , we
should do something that changes the public opinion in such a way that
when they see such badly portrayed characters on the screen, they know it
is a bad sterotype.
I think we are doing the right things. Academically and professionally,
we are sucessfully beating the odds and becoming the strongest immigrant
community in the US.
> >The only Asian character in the movie is a short, wobbly, nerdy waiter, who
> >speaks broken English with a thick acccent. This character is labled
> >"Chinaman" by one of the leads in the movie (played by Ed Harris), who is
> >the chief police investigator and a "good guy". The line with this
> >derogatory term is used for the purpose of generating a big laugh from the
> >audience. At the screening I attended, it did.
Let 'em laugh. Cheap comedy always comes with ignorance.
> >As walked out of the theater, and all I could think of was the number of
> >young adults who were at the screening, who heard the rest of the audience
> >laugh, and laughed along.
So, some of us might feel hurt a little, might be a lot for some others.
Then do something positive, and effective! Rather than cry "boycott".
> >Please do not let our silence encourage the continuation of racial
> >stereotypes by Hollywood and the media. Please take one minute and
> >forward this message now!
It is too darn easy to just the forward button. Some of us might think
that action will alone do something to better images of Asians in the
media?
gosh, get your butt off the comfortable chair in the air-conditioned room
and do something
(the above is definitely a stereotype of Asian engineers,
but why not stereotype? ;-) I know you guys are all clicking the forward
button and thinking that your part is done. You 'd done something helpful
by just clicking the forward buton? ) Think again.
botcott ain't help much. really!
--
Minh
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