Korean-Americans

Since the Virgina Tech shooting, I've been thinking more about mainstream (not just white) American racism against Asians. I ran across this Korean-American comedian (from Arlington, VA), Suzanne Whang who is making a career out of this problem with her character, Sung Hee Park. She said in an interview that her "act is a satire of racism in America" but that "some Asian-born Asians who find my act offensive and accuse me of perpetuating racism in America. My response to that is that my intention is exactly the opposite. I'm using humor and satire to shine a light on racism and stereotypes in the same way that Archie Bunker's character did in All In The Family. "

This is my favorite quote from the interview:

what is stereotypical about a Korean woman who has the BALLS to get up on stage and try to make a room full of people laugh? A stereotypical Korean woman would be hiding in a back corner of the comedy club. One of the stereotypes of Asians is that we take ourselves too seriously, which is one of the things I'm trying to break. Most of the time, it's the minorities in the audience who come up to me first and tell me that it's the funniest thing they've ever seen. They GET IT and they're happy someone's doing what I'm doing. I think it's dangerous to be too "politically correct" and pretend everything's fine, when it's not.

She has a clip of her routine on YouTube, but it's a bit R-rated, and I'm not that comfortable posting it here. I'm fine linking to it, though. It's very funny.