While we're on the subject of Megan Amram's anti-Asian tweets & how those views shaped her writing of Fil-Am characters in The Good Place, let's talk about anti-Asian racism in the 2012 film Hit & Run starring Kristen Bell & written by her husband Dax Shepard. 1/
CW: Rape, racism
CW: Rape, racism
It says a lot that the dialogue about the Filipino rapist & this scene—where Bradley Cooper nearly lynches a Black man with a leash & feeds him dog food—are presented as comedy. Although the story & its characters are fictional, these portrayals tell us how Shepard views MOC. 2/
These dehumanizing stereotypes of Black men as "savage thugs" & Asian men as "weak eunuchs" is a common racist refrain. We see this with Mike Tyson & Ken Jeong in The Hangover, which Bradley Cooper also starred in. Comedian Louis CK made similar "jokes" about BM & AM in 2018. 3/
The irony is Kristen Bell is vocal about how Shepard & her are teaching their kids to be anti-racist, yet just released a children's book "The World Needs More Purple People" that pushes damaging colorblindness. Refusing to tackle race is what results in films like Hit & Run. 4/
White liberals think just by mentioning people of color, they're eradicating racism. But for representation to be meaningful, it has to be authentic, give POC a voice, and challenge racism directly, not masked with colorblindness or perpetuate racist violence on & off screen. 5/
As a Fil-Am writer & artist with experience in Hollywood & who's been institutionally blocked from publishing a book about being Fil-Am/Asian, I know firsthand that white people think the "right" way to talk about racism is to not talk about it at all. 6/
So it's incredibly frustrating to see white liberals or "allies" feature Filipinos only to cut us down with anti-Asian racism they don't even know they have—the same racism I and other AsAms have dealt with our whole lives—while we're obstructed from telling our own stories. 7/7
