The Fairy Princess has been that kind of holiday busy where everything is a whirl of everything else but she was getting many ‘requests’ for comments – which she thought would kind of die down, but have only been increasing, so she is going to just share thoughts about a specific viral video…
Most recently, NBC’s Saturday Night Live aka SNL put forth this comedy sketch – Asian American Doll.
People have asked, via email and social media, what The Fairy Princess thought, in an ‘official’ kind of capacity, so…
She thinks it’s funny.
It is a funny video.
Here is why – it’s making fun of Corporate America.
Making fun of Corporate America is fair comedic game.
TFP also believes that SNL is making fun of it’s own LACK of diversity amongst its writers and cast – and as they are willing to address it, TFP has to believe that NBC is on their case about it, and is working hard to ‘fix’ this issue.
What this video is showing us is the fear Corporate America has of getting ‘it’ wrong. Everything Corporate America tries so hard to sell us and to brand us is brought to us via focus groups and demographics. Creativity starts with one person thinking differently. This video is skewering the concept of cultural co-option by committee, and TFP will laugh at and with that every time.
Because WHO runs Corporate America, Folks?
Think hard.
Yes, they all are, but who really RUNS Corporate America?
White people.
SHUT THE FRONT DOOR!
And those darn Caucasians are so hilarious, how can you help but laugh at…er…with them?
Now for APIs who are flipping out about this, here is what – you are exactly who they made this video for. The people who get annoyed when we are mentioned, but then who flip out every time we are not – you wanted to be included right? Well, there you are…
Enjoy it.
All that hashtag activism that has been done so much better by Australians (#IllRideWithYou), our API watchdog groups and bloggers (TFPincluded), is both necessary and absurd. We can laugh at the fact that blogs like this one, and media watchdog groups have to exist.
We can laugh at it because it is absurd in this day and age to have to remind people that…
In this day and age to have to do this is…well…laughable. Infuriating and absurd and frustrating all at the same time. So ‘we’ will continue to go on writing and hashtagging – etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
For the record, ‘we’ exist because of things like this:
But that is NOT what the SNL sketch is Folks, not at all.
We are included in the joke here, we are not the butt of it. This video, to TFP says that ‘we’ are being heard.
It is the same premise that vaudeville existed under – if they are including you in the joke, that means you are breaking through. This video says to TFP, “We SEE you, we HEAR you, we have NOT gotten this ‘right’ yet, but we are working on it.”
And…it’s funny.
So thanks SNL, you made TFP laugh, and that is just what her wings need, every now and then.
Oh dear, TFP just realized that her power cord is in the room where her kid is sleeping…ok, so that is all for now, will go “Into The White’ later on…
The Fairy Princess is having media overload – the rest of the country is suffering from it as well. There have been countless examples of inequality based on skin tone, which have been met with many articles, forums, news conferences, and marches.
All of this discussion is good. Even when it is uncomfortable. Even when the facts are hideous to face, it is good to have to talk about them. It is good to look underneath our society at the ‘mold’ that grows insidiously while unchecked.
However, all of it is having a toll – 0n everyone. On the men whose lives have been cut short and then dishonored by the lack of justice, on their grieving families, and on the population of our country.
The Fairy Princess blogs consistently on the issue of representation, and what it means for the world.
Entertainment is sometimes the first place that people who live in a homogeneous area get to see people who look different. It may be the first place that they ‘fall in love’ with a character who would walk a different path than they do, and it may help bridge that gap between ‘them’ and ‘us’.
The reason to need more diversity on television and on stage and on film is to share the thought that #alllivesmatter by showing us windows into people who may not look like us, but who share humanity as we all do.
The Fairy Princess wanted to share a story that happened to her – it is a personal story – but it has been on her mind over and over again, in the last few weeks, because it is a story of ‘us’, and she likes to think it shows the possibility of humanity.
Two and a half years ago, in late May, The Fairy Princess was exceptionally pregnant. She was ‘due’ at any minute, and thus, her husband decided to take her to see a Broadway show. We saw “Once”, with the original company, it was in previews at the time, and it was absolutely fabulous.
The Fairy Princess and her husband boarded a commuter train and they sat in the end seat. The end seats are for groups, so they have front and rear facing seats for conversation. Late evening trains are not generally crowded, so using TFP’s big preggers belly as a plus one, we were three in the seats.
The Fairy Princess‘s husband is a six foot tall Korean American who holds a black belt with multiple stripes in Tae Kwon Do and who used to play football in high school. (This becomes relevant later).
Two Caucasian individuals, male and female, entered the train and sat directly facing us. They were inebriated. They were in their 20’s. The female was definitely worse for the drink, and was muttering under her breath while staring directly at TFP’s and her husband.
She muttered things about ‘those people‘ and ‘stealing our jobs‘, and such, and TFP suggested to her husband that we move seats, because…well….
And if one is about to give birth, one really does not ‘have time for that’.
However, TFP’s husband has this stubborn streak, and he knew that when this couple entered the car, he was already seated, so they had no idea that he, if he rose, would actually tower over them by a few inches, and of course…if one holds a black belt, one takes very little notice of drunk people. Also, he has this sense of humor that is not easily defined, and he said “I want to see how this goes”.
TFP kind of hates when his sense of humor makes her sit opposite people who are drunken muttering, but when one is pregnant, it is kind of daunting to get up and down out of seats, so she thought….
The rest of the passengers boarded and the train pulled out.
Now, this train was, obviously, in New York, and was coming from New York City. New York City is, de facto, a diverse place – people of all colors, genders, and sexual preferences. The average New Yorker walking around or taking the subway sees so much diversity, that no one seems to blink an eye at sharing space with someone who does not resemble them exactly.
Except this drunk young woman.
Who loudly started to proclaim whilst staring at TFP‘s husband that he ‘should go back where he came from” (That would be Virginia, my dear), and that he and his kind ‘came over here to take our f**king jobs” (Actually, as we do not recognize you and he works in the Performing Arts, rest assured, your job is safe from him, good lady), and TFP was getting ready to say something. TFP was “getting her Irish up‘, as they say in her family, and it was not going to be pretty. (Plus, let’s been honest, she had just seen “Once’, so her “Irish” was pretty close to the forefront of her being that night)
However, another voice spoke up.
A gentleman from the seat across from us, also looking directly at this young woman’s face. He said “You should shut your mouth.” To which, of course, she responded. He said “You should shut your mouth. You have no idea where they came from, and you have no idea if they took your job or not, you are just being racist.”
He continued with some other pointed barbs – not using profanity – and as TFP looked over, she did think that perhaps he was one of her ‘tribe’, but some Eurasians are hard to pin down, but TFP knew one thing – he was one of her “Menz”.
The person sticking up for her husband, was Gay. He was a Gay man who saw, to him, what appeared to be a drunk Caucasian insulting an Asian man (he didn’t know about TFP’s husband’s sense of humor), and he said something.
At this point, the argument was getting loud, but everyone remained seated.
Until the drunk girl’s companion called that lovely man seated opposite us, “a Faggot“.
Which was NOT ok.
He also stood, this drunk man and threatened him with physical harm.
Which was when The Fairy Princess grabbed her giant belly and jumped in the aisle and told him to ‘sit the f*ck down”.
Then this drunk Caucasian man started yelling about Unions and jobs and all, and this was his giant mistake (other than being an admirer of this female he was traveling with), because if you have read this blog before, then you may know that TFP’s relative, Mike Quill, started the TWU (The Transit Workers Union).
“The judge can drop dead in his black robes, and we would not call off the strike. Personally, I don’t care if I rot in jail!” – Mike Quill
TFP gave this drunk man a giant lecture on what Unions are supposed to stand for, and that he would not even have a Union except for her relation, and furthermore, non-discrimination on the basis of race or sexual preference is a tenant of Union by-laws!
The Fairy Princess knows a lot about Unions.
Upon which, this drunk man threatened to come over and punch her.
Whereupon, TFP told him that she would knock him into next week if he came anywhere near and gestured to her husband to stand.
However her husband had a big smile on his face, and pointed behind TFP and she glanced behind her where, unbeknownst to her, a GIANT African American Man was standing behind her, backing her up. He gave her the ‘go ahead‘ nod, so she knew it was going to be ok.
TFP looked, and half the car of passengers, who had been watching to see what was going to happen, many of whom were people of color, stood up.
They stood up, and they told this guy to sit down.
At which point there was a lot of yelling, and then the Conductor came through the car.
The Conductor was Caucasian.
He wanted to know what was going on.
The Conductor looked around, asked a few questions, and then told these two drunks who were harassing everyone to get off his train, and as we were pulling into a stop (which was nowhere near where they wanted to go), he threw them off, telling them to sober up, mind their manners, and learn how to behave because that stuff that they were doing was not going to fly on his train.
Upon which, the car burst into spontaneous applause, and The Conductor took a bow.
Then we all had a good laugh, and it turned out that one of the women in the car’s hair was all messed up because she had been to a club dancing, and the fellow who first responded to these people was a stylist and he offered to fix it for her if she came into his salon in the morning. She made an appointment with him immediately.
Everyone started laughing and chatting.
It turned out the reason he had said something was because his Mom was Hawaiian Japanese and his Dad was Caucasian, and he had seen people talk badly to his Mother when he was a kid, and he could not do anything about it. However now, he speaks up all the time, because he is an adult.
That is what happened that day on the train – we, the adults, all stood for one another.
We all had eachother’s back.
We united against something that on the surface seems trivial, but pulled back and exposed seems ugly and sordid.
TFP asked her husband later, why he did not jump up earlier, and he told her “You didn’t need me, you didn’t see it, but everyone was there for you. You didn’t even look around to see, but they all had your back, so I just watched the show.”
TFP may have mentioned that she does not always appreciate her husband’s humor.
He did follow with “I would have jumped up and clocked him if I had to, but you know if I hit someone…they are not getting up.”
Which, upon reflection, it was probably for the best that he had not had to get up.
The Fairy Princess would like to believe that America can be like that train car. That we can come together, regardless of experience or skin tone, regardless of politics, regardless of privilege.
The Fairy Princess was feeling media exhausted this morning, because she read about another school shooting. The Fairy Princess read about rape, and incest, and sexism, and political badgering, and environmental destruction, and captive orcas and deaths caused by lack of empathy for people whose skin color is different, and that was all before 9 A.M.
She was very, very sad.
But then she remembered this story, and she felt slightly better. She remembered that nod from that guy, that ‘go ahead, I’m here” nod that said she would be ok no matter what happened – and that, my friends, gives her hope.
Sometimes that is what you have to cling to, to get through the day.
The Fairy Princess has not been blogging much, she’s been paying attention to world events that are too sad to reiterate here, though she has, of course, written at length, sadly, in the past.
Image by Banksy
She hopes she never has to write about the slaughtering of young men again, she is hoping America will figure out how to come together and end senseless violence towards one another.
She hopes. Always, there is hope.
She also noted that two television shows starring Asian Americans were cancelled in the last weeks – SELFIE, starring, of course, the fantastic John Cho…
And TBS cancelled Sullivan and Son, with the always hilarious Jodi Long….
However….in every cloud there is a silver lining, so the saying goes, and here is one – HULU is going to be broadcasting the rest of the season of SELFIE, which means if you fell in love with John Cho as Henry, you are going to get some manner of resolution. And who knows? If the numbers are fantastic, maybe they will pick it up again – stranger things have happened.
Oh COME ON Rex Lee, The Entourage Movie happened!
Also, with Pilot season approaching in January, and perhaps sooner, it is likely that those Actors will book another show, The Fairy Princess is hoping the odds will be ever in their favor.
However, as TFP went about her day, she found a letter addressed to Playbill.com ‘s advice column, aka “Hey Johnny”. Every week “Hey Johnny’ is answered by a different person, so TFP is going to retype the letter here in case you have missed it.
Hey Johnny,
I go to a high school with a really great arts program (we do three shows a year) but I’ve noticed a problem. Our (white) director keeps making slightly racist comments towards the Asian students (during Avenue Q he referred to our Christmas Eve as “that Asian girl”). Even though a good number of Asian students auditioned for our next show, he didn’t even let most of them into the ensemble. We’re planning to do Miss Saigon in the spring and he’s been heavily implying that he’s going to cast white student in the leads, because that’s what they did last time they did it. It’s been like this all four years, and it’s really been making me and the other Asian students feel awful, and we’ve been doubting if we have a future in the theatre. I’ve tried to keep positive for us, but even I’ve fallen into a gloom. Please, what should we do?
Signed,
That Asian Kid
Now, whoever answered that letter, that week, did awonderful job responding to That Asian Kid, but did not seem to be Asian American. Who cares? Totally fine! The response was thoughtful and caring, and one does not need to share a skin tone to have empathy or give encouragement or wisdom.
However, The Fairy Princess thought that That Asian Kid and his classmates could use some words from someone who has ALSO been, ahem, That Asian Kid.
Dear That Asian Kid,
That Director is out of line. The Fairy Princess could use many other words, but if she was in the room with him, this would be the mildest thing she could come up with:
Here is what you are going to do, and you have to be brave. You have to be ok with whatever happens, because you are challenging the status quo and that is always, always difficult. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not.
Either way, it is ok, the Asian Americans of “The Broadway” have got your back.
The House of Xmas Eves…these are but of a few of us
1. Gather a brief written (typed and signed) statement from any student, but particularly of course, the Asian American students, who have been addressed by only their race, or who have been recipients of racial toned remarks from this Director. I would imagine if he has said things to the Asian students, he has likely said things to the African American and Latino students as well, so ask around.
2. After you have these statements, you are to ask those who wrote them if they are willing to go to the Principal and present them with you. Some will, some won’t. I agree with “Hey Johnny”, that a multicultural group is best, do what you can. I would encourage you to take someone on the Student Council, and if you can, a member of the PTA to present these circumstances to your Principal. This is too big just for the ‘kids’, you need a Parent with some clout to back you up.
3. When you present to the Principal, tell he or she that should this issue not be dealt with in some manner, you are going to present the same statements at a local town government meeting, where minutes are recorded – so that it is on record that your school is choosing to ignore issues of microagression towards Asian Americans and racial bias.
That is what you are dealing with – microagressions from this Director.
You should outline your issues in one ‘master letter’, and you should also present in that letter, your concerns about the casting of the upcoming MISS SAIGON.
That should get the ball rolling…to say the least.
Now, in terms of Casting, what you are dealing with, with this Director is called “White Washing”.
White Washing is very prevalent in our Society, and you are not the first to have suffered from it, and you will not be the last. It sucks. What it means is they take characters or stories that are linked to an ethnic group, and when they Cast the musical or the film or the television show – they cast Caucasian Actors.
Jonathan Pryce, The Engineer from the Original Bway Cast of MISS SAIGON
Actor Lambert Wilson as The King of Siam in a French Production of King & I
However, casting a Caucasian Actress as Kim in MISS SAIGON would be a serious breach of theatrical ethics, as well as horribly bad historical rewriting. The part of Kim is, as everyone knows, a young woman coming of age in Vietnam.
Even though Cameron MacIntosh did allow Mr. Pryce to play the Engineer (a character that is written as a Eurasian man), he drew the line at casting a Caucasian woman to play the part of Kim. Which gave us our only female Asian TONY Winner, in point of fact. Casting a non-Asian Kim is not acceptable – ever. And over time, casting a Non-Asian Performer as The Engineer has become a theatrical no-no, which is wonderful progress.
Which brings us to “Yellowface“, which is what will happen in your school if Kim is cast as a Caucasian.
Yellowface is not acceptable in our mainstream and certainly not in a high school production. If your Principal does not understand this, explain to her/him that to Asian Americans, it is the same as blackface.
This is totally offensive but if you have never seen it, you need a visual. An awful and offensive visual. Apologies.
(The Fairy Princess is choosing not to comment on why a high school would be doing MISS SAIGON, but…
she has some thoughts about the appropriateness of it.)
The simple truth is that this Director should not even have suggested MISS SAIGON if he felt that he would be unable to cast Kim or The Engineer with Asian American students. Not in this day and age, and if that has been his intention, then he should be released from his duties as an Educator.
Would he cast DREAMGIRLS with a non-African American cast? No. He likely would not dare, and it would be the same thing.
Meaning that even if you truly love a show, you cannot take an ethnic based story and erase the ethnic faces from that story. It is illogical and ignorant. A point which, btw, you should make both to your Principal and that Director.
Whatever happens with that, TFP wishes you much luck with it, and hopes you have success. You may not, because it is high school, and because no one likes to rock the boat, and they will call you ‘oversensitive’ or accuse you of ‘making it up’ – those things can happen.
But….TFP thinks you may prevail if you all come at it with purpose. (Which is that little thing that lights a fire under your ass)
Finally, That Asian Kid, TFP wants to let you know that you are not the only Asian Kid that has ever had a dream of being on the stage and perhaps eventually, Broadway.
For example, this guy:
BD Wong, TONY Winner
And this guy:
R.I.P. Kevin Gray
And not only did they make it to Broadway, some sang in Six Languages….
Drama Desk Winner, Deborah S. Graig
Or became renown solo entertainers and do copious amounts of television roles….
America’s Gaysian Sweetheart, Alec Mapa
Or work, work, work in every medium….
OBIE Winner and Drama Desk Nominee, Francis Jue
Some go from one show to the next…..
Mr & Mrs. Ferdinand Marcos as played by Jose Llana & Ruthie Ann Miles – Ruthie Ann is the new Lady Thiang in the King and I revival starring Ken Watanabe
Some were the headliners in their show and went West to try out Hollywoodland
Manu Narayan, star of Bombay Dreams, pictured in award winning production of Glengarry Glenn Ross
Some have not been to Broadway yet, but are on their way…
Actress Vanessa Hudgens is currently starring in GIGI, the musical, which has announced it’s intention to go to Broadway
Or working on new musicals they hope will head to Broadway
The Cast of Allegiance from The Old Globe – they had hella nominations, y’all
Or got started in musicals and made it to Portland….
Reggie Lee from NBC’s GRIMM, who has also been in a ton of feature films
Or started on Broadway and then got eaten by Hannibal
Hettienne Park was ‘discovered’ by Creator of Hannibal, Bryan Fuller, in a play on Broadway
Some are singing their tushes off in the Broadway show IF/Then
IF/Then Cast Members Marc DelaCruz, Pearl Sun, and Charles Hagerty
Some have had long, extensive Broadway careers like Joseph Anthony Foronda….
Joseph Anthony Foronda as The Engineer , Ken Shim as Tam, and Jacqueline Nguyen in MISS SAIGON at La Mirada
And Alvin Ing…
Like Lainie Sakakura, who also choreographs….
And of course, you would know this guy from GLEE…
Some are in new Broadway Shows like Raymond J. Lee….
The Flying Elvises from HONEYMOON IN VEGAS
Or cool shows that have ‘buzz’
That is Orville Mendoza with the cast of FOUND
The Fairy Princess’s point is, oh dear That Asian Kid, is that we have all felt, at one point or another, just as you are feeling now, frustrated, indignant, and powerless because someone somewhere has referred to us only by ethnicity, or categorized us only by ethnicity, or tried to limit what we could do because of our ethnicity – and, That Asian Kid….they failed.
We are ok.
Yes, there could and should be more of us working, particularly in television which is supposed to ‘reflect the American scene’, but there has been progress, and we are OK.
Asian Americans are not being silent about casting and representation.
We protest when things are wrong –
Yes, that is Tamlyn Tomita rallying at East West Players
We are voices of change.
Cindy Cheung & Christine Toy Johnson at La Jolla’s talkback…
We give speeches…
Those of us who are ‘coming before you’ are working on a lot of stuff.
Actor/Producer Pun Bandhu at the RepresentAsian Conference
So you worry about school.
We got this.
Do NOT give up because of this Director, That Asian Kid, he is ONE guy and eventually, high school ends, and you graduate. You get to leave. And when you go to college, you can study whatever you want.
Happy Dance!
Finally, as someone who was inAVENUE Q, to clarify – the point of “Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist” is not to identify everyone by their ethnicity, it’s really to show that whatever prejudices we have, we are all the same underneath.
SM Beverly Jenkins, our Original Mistress of the Puppets – Singer/Songwriter Phoebe Kreutz, John Tartaglia, Erin Quill, and Carmen Ruby Floyd – all part of the Original Broadway Company
The point of the show is ‘when you help others, you are really helping yourself”, whether it is opening a school for Monsters, or speaking up when something is as far out of line as this situation seems to be from your letter.
The Fairy Princess wishes you and your fellow students much luck in surviving the rest of high school, she was not particularly fond of high school when she went through it herself, but as we say at the Q…
Break a leg, That Asian Kid – and if he still gives you a problem, tell him to
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