The Fighting 44s

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been following the story of the book “Skits That Teach” and the ensuing controversy because it involved the intersection of several issues that I care about - Asian America, the Christian Church, and the ugly specter of racism. For those unfamiliar with what exactly happened, I believe the incident is worth recounting as a lesson in both the response of the Asian American community, and the response of those who committed the offense.

My interest in the story first began when I was reading the blog of thecuttingtruth (an Asian American Christian whose blog focuses particularly on Asian American and Christian issues) made a detailed entry on February 22nd about a controversial skit being published by a Christian book company. He himself had been tipped off by the blog of Soong-Chan Rah, a founder and pastor of a multi-ethnic church in Cambridge, MA.

For those wanting to know what exactly went wrong without reading the aforementioned links… Zondervan and Youth Specialities (YS), published the following skit in a book containing skits (“Skits that Teach”) designed for young people:

“Herro? Dis is Wok’s Up calling to confirm your order. We have one fried rice . . . and one pu pu platter.I think that, yes, you total is 14 dollar 95 cent. Thank you very much.” (a little more irritated) “Herro? This is Wok’s Up Restaurant again. We have drive and drive, and we can’t find you house. We don’t find you house soon, you pu pu get cold. Pu pu good when it get cold. Pu pu good when it hot. Hot pu pu is a very good, and you pu pu getting cold.” (hostile) “Okay, we drive for a long time looking for you house. I tell you, you go outside and I look for you. I am driving a red Rincon Continental. You pu pu getting cold. Bye!” Okay, I drive for long time and I still not find you house. So I am eating you pu pu. Ruckiry it still warm. I was hungry, so I eat it. Mmmmmm this pu pu is good. You on my bad rist.

So what exactly is the skit supposed to teach? Good question.

The skit was initially offered as a free sample on the publisher’s website, along with a audio file of the skit being performed in the mocking, “Oriental” stereotyped accent that the spelling of the dialogue implies. I personally felt sick after reading the skit and hearing the file - not only was I disgusted by the ugly stereotypes that the skit seemed to enforce about Chinese people and Asians in general; I felt sick knowing that this brand of racist humor was coming from a supposedly Christian company, and worst of all, it was meant to be performed for youth.

Popular culture is filled with already plenty of damaging, one-dimensional images of Asian people - to see it repeated in the Christian Church was a gross offense. Imagine for example being the only Asian kid at a non-Asian church, and sitting through this horrible excuse of a skit at your Saturday night youth club meeting…

.:.

It’s not the first time patently racist material against Asians has appeared in “legitimate” Christian educational materials.

Back in 2003, another Christian publisher came out with their Orientalist-fantasy “Rickshaw Rally” as a curriculum for churches to use during their summer activity programs for young children (commonly called “VBS”, vacation bible school). When the Asian American and Asian American Christian community complained, all they got was an unapologetic apology letter that amounted to, “Oops! Sorry, but we’re still going to sell our racist crap!”

Even to this day, “Rickshaw Rally” remains available.

.:.

Over the next few days, news of the skit began spreading and complaints were sent to Zondervan. Soong-Chan Rah himself began personally speaking via phone to several leaders at Zondervan, and in complete contrast to the “Rickshaw Rally” incident, found people receptive. Zondervan committed to freezing its remaining stock, re-editing the book to remove the offensive material, and offering free replacement copies to those who purchased the original.

While that action in and of itself was significant, the greatest steps toward reconciliation were made in the form of personal apologies - one from the skit writers themselves, and a particularly heartfelt, sincere one by marko, who took a lead role in responding to the concerns raised by Soong-Chan Rah, thecuttingtruth, and the Asian American Christian community.

The full text of marko’s bold and humble letter:

A public apology to our Asian American brothers and sisters Friday March 02nd 2007, 8:18 pm we at youth specialties really screwed up. big time. i’m ashamed and embarrassed and horrified (and fairly angry, also), and i personally beg the forgiveness of our asian american christian brothers and sisters. i write as an individual christ-follower with responsibility for the systems in our organization which allowed for this offense; and i write as a spokesperson for youth specialties, apologizing on behalf of the whole organization. in the fall of 2006, we published a book called “skits that teach.” the book contained a skit with a “chinese delivery man” character whose characterization – and, particularly, whose phonetically-spelled accent – was horribly, inexcusably, and unquestionably racist. that this content would appear in a youth specialties book has kept myself and others at ys sleepless this week – not only in our efforts to correct the problem, but in our sorrow over our addition to the prejudice perpetrated against asian americans. if there is ANY place we should expect an exception to the cultural norms on this kind of prejudice, it should be in the church. this kind of racism (intentional or not – that is not at issue here) goes against everything we believe here at ys. while there was no intention of racism on our part, i do believe this blunder has exposed some systematic issues we must face. what I mean is this: if the character in the skit had been an african american, with similar racial characterization and phonetically-spelled accent, it would not – i believe – have slipped through the administrative cracks in our development process. but, somehow, the characterization that did get printed didn’t register high-enough on the radars of the people who saw it. this, while we might not want to admit it, reveals a systematic racism. and it’s one that I am committed to addressing, in myself (first), and in our organization. here are the steps we have taken, and will be taking, as it pertains to the “skits that teach” book. actions already taken: - the day this issue was brought to the attention of jay howver (our publisher, who was also not aware of the content until that moment), we froze the remaining stock of 1700 copies in the warehouse of zondervan. - within a day or two, a new version of the pages containing that skit had been edited and designed, and a new edition of the book is already at the printer. the new version should be in stock by mid-march. - i entered into dialogue with dr. soong-chan rah, a pastor, professor at north park college, and the person who brought this issue to my attention (at about the same time as i was learning about it from within our organization). after several emails, dr. rah and i schedule a phone call for this morning (friday). i wanted to wait to chat with dr. rah before posting this apology, as i wanted to make sure i wasn’t assuming what all the issues were. i wanted to learn more about the background (various christian publishing and ministry issues that have occurred in the last few years). this, to say the least, has been a very educational week for me! action to be taken in the next week: - we will link to this public apology in our weekly email next wednesday (which is distributed to approximately 30,000 youth workers). - we will link to this apology from the front page of our website for a period of time. - i will personally receive any phone call from an asian american ministry leader who would like to talk, yell, complain, or ask questions. my number at ys is: (619) 440-2333. my email is: marko@youthspecialties.com (that goes directly to me, not to someone who screens my emails – you will receive a response directly from me). - we will destroy the 1700 copies of the book currently “frozen” in the zondervan warehouse. normally, the stock of a discontinued or out-of-print book is sold off as “remainders” at a highly discounted price, to book liquidators. we want to be sure that not one more copy of the original version of this book sees the light of day. - we will gladly offer a free copy of the new version of the book to anyone who has the original version. if you have the original version, simply tear out that skit (pages 13 – 16), and send it to youth specialties (300 s. pierce st., el cajon, ca 92020, ATTN: mindi godfrey). be sure to include your shipping address. we’ll send an entire replacement book at no charge to you. - while there is no way for us to do an actual “recall” of the products that are already in christian bookstores, zondervan will certainly accept returns of that book (as they would of any book). - our CORE manager (the CORE is our one day training seminar, which takes place in 100 cities over the next few months) just told me she’ll contact all the hosts for this weekend (about 8 or 10) and have them pull all the copies of this book from the sales tables. i would also like to be clear that zondervan, our parent company, had nothing to do with this mess. they are not involved in our editorial process in a way that anyone at zondervan would have had an opportunity to raise a flag on this. personally, i look forward to a few things: - i look forward to the good i believe god can bring from this. i don’t pretend to know what that will look like; but my faith is built on a hope that god loves turning our sin and mess into beauty and restoration. - i look forward to further interactions with asian american church leaders I have met through this painful process. i welcome your further input. all of us at ys welcome your input. - i look forward to continuing my learning about the unique prejudices tolerated in our culture against asian americans. i asked dr. rah for a couple book suggestions that would further my understanding, and have already ordered the two he suggested.

.:.

That fact that racism has and continues to permeate every faucet of American society, including the Christian church, is not news to most people of color. However, the rather positive resolution of this incident does reassure my faith in the belief that the best way to begin approaching the issue of racism (both personal and systemic) is through dialogue.

Of course, an effective dialogue depends on a willingness of the people involved to try to communicate and work toward a common goal. In this case, the willingness to communicate and cooperate was in no doubt aided by the common faith of the participants. It definitely helps that racial reconciliation and social equality is mandated by Scripture (see Galatians 3:27-29, Colossians 3:9-12, James 2:1-12 in the New Testament of the Bible)

Sadly, sometimes even a common faith may not be enough to power a real dialogue. While the response to marko’s letter of apology was overwhelming positive from both Asian and non-Asian Christians, a noticeable minority of “Christians” made comments disapproving of marko’s apology on his blog and remarked that “some people are too sensitive” (a thinly-veiled reference to Asians in light of the incident and other people of color). Others made the common pseudo-tolerant proclamation that they are “colorblind” and that Asians who feel offended are needed to just “get over it.” It’s the classic “blame the victim” approach of white privilege and framing the issue of racism as mere “sensitivity.”

Still, other people and myself can’t help but feel that this incident might be a catalyst for more positive changes in the Christian church, which Soong-Chan Rah once insightfully remarked in a sermon that we are living in a time of western white captivity of the church (hat tip to thecuttingtruth again for the quote). I have a vision that progressive Asian American Christians of the 21st century will play a significant role in reshaping the modern Christian church - which today is mired in hypocrisy, shallowness, and a slavish devotion to a Western colonialistic perspective that ignores the other evils of our age: poverty, militarism, global warming, etc.

Of course, whether or not the Asian American Christian community itself wants that role is completely different discussion fit for another article…

 

This entry was posted on Friday, March 9th, 2007 at 4:37 am and is filed under Opinion, Religion & Spirituality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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