An emotional Julie Chen made an embarrassing mistake when talking about her reaction to the racist comments uttered by several contestants on “Big Brother,” reports Yahoo.
” When I first found out that Aaryn, who is a 22-year-old girl, made anti-gay, anti-black and anti-Asian comments, I have to be honest, the Asian ones hit me the most. I heard about her describing Asians as ‘squinty-eyed’ and ‘go make a bowl of rice.’ She said that about Helen, who is Chinese and in the house. It stung. I took it personally.”
Contestant Helen Kim is actually Korean.
“Big Brother” season 4 winner Jun Song tweeted ““Oh good lord. Julie Chen thinks Helen Kim is Chinese. I give up. Evil wins. #BB15.”
Song would later calm down a bit saying “I hate that Julie Chen didn’t think to confirm that Helen Kim is Korean and not Chinese, but I love this dialogue about race.”
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The mistake is especially surprising since Kim is the most common surnames in Korea. But I’ll cut Chen some slack given that she was baring her soul on her show “The Talk” in discussing how the comments hurt her.
It’s also one of the first times, if not the first time, Chen has addressed her own ethnicity publicly despite being one of the highest profile Asian Americans on television.
You can read more about the Big Brother controversy in Yahoo.
From Pierre Nguyen via Facebook RE: Julie Chen's gaffe: it makes me believe that julie chen isn't really in touch with her asian roots. what kind of asian doesn't know that "kim" is a korean name?
From Luke Chung via Facebook RE Julie Chen's Gaffe: "It was an honest mistake which she owned up to…I have no problems with it!!!"
From Jennifer Ann Fung via Facebook RE: Julie Chen's Gaffe: "Damn that blonde contestant who makes racist remarks against the Korean chick!"
From Peter Zhao via Facebook RE: Julie Chen Gaffe: She probably doesn't hang with Asians.
From Phil Lam via Facebook Re: Julie Chen Gaffe: Who is Julie Chen?
From Ben Kim Hine via Facebook RE: Julie Chen Gaffe: Think she just slipped. We all do it.
From Whitman Lam via Facebook RE: Julie Chen Gaffe: She's just another tool to make White men feel better about themselves, "Hey, we own Asian women, just like we owned Black women in the slavery days … except without the guilt."
From Yilen Yippididoodah Pan via Facebook: RE Julie Chen Gaffe: Who?
From Rodney Leong via Facebook RE: Julie Chen Gaffe: Well, she went there willingly since she pursued and wound up marrying an old white guy (Les Moonves), breaking up his previous marriage in the process.
From Whitney Lam via Facebook RE: Julie chen Gaffe: And that's probably the only reason she's on TV. The willingness to use sex to get to the top. Other races of women do it to, just not as much.
From Rodney Leong via Facebook RE: Julie Chen Gaffe: Remember a lot of gweilos have yellow fever, especially in the cities. Having a hot Asian girl on your arm (if you're a black or white male) is the ultimate status symbol.
From Brendan Seeto via Facebook RE: Julie Chen Gaffe: I think Julie is just plain ignorant. It can happen to people of minority groups being constantly exposed to the attitudes and mindsets of majority groups. I have met Asians like that here in Australia.
From Tee Yee Jonathan Eng via Facebook RE: Julie Chen Gaffe: I'd cut her some slack. Sure Kim is a common Korean name, but compared to the BS that sparked Chen's reaction it's not that bad.
From Brendan via Facebook RE: Julie Chen Gaffe: Also, Chen is Chinese, she can't be expected to know about other Asian races like the Koreans. They are a different people even if there is some shared Asian cultural similarities.
From Pierre Nguyen via Facebook RE: Julie Chen Gaffe: i think it's actually worse! i might cut aaryn a lil slack because she might have grown up in a community that wasn't very diverse. julie grew up in QUEENS and went to USC.
From Pierre Nguyen via Facebook RE: Julie Chen Gaffe: Those of you who aren't familiar with queens, ny, there's a huge asian community (mostly korean and chinese/taiwanese) there. the only way you don't know that kim is a korean name is if you don't hang out with asians.
From Brendan Seto via Facebook RE: Julie Chen Gaffe: Ok, maybe she just doesn't hang out with Asians much. Still I wouldn't expect to much from her either.
From Whitney Lam via Facebook RE: Julie Chen Gaffe: Who decides the Big Brother casting ?? At least the Black woman had a Black man in the house to defend her against racism …. The Asian woman had NOBODY on her side, because there was no Asian man invited to the house.
From Te Yee Jonathan Eng RE: Julie Chen Gaffe: Whitman, I think most women these days can defend themselves. I consider the fact that an Asian woman needs an Asian man to defend her from racism to be condensing.
From Pierre Nguyen via Facebook RE: Julie Chen Gaffe: ^i would have to disagree
From Rodney Leong via Facebook RE Julie Chen Gaffe: Yeah, that's cos a white guy could defend the Asian woman since that's what Hollywood knows.
From Pierre Nguyen via Facebook RE: Julie Chen Gaffe: Why can't people just defend people bc it's the right thing to so
From Pierre Nguyen via Facebook RE: Julie Chen Gaffe: *do
From Brandon Seto via Facebook: Julie Chen Gaffe: Did anyone defend her?
from Te Yee Jonathan Eng via Facebook RE Julie Chen gaffe: So Rodney, damn if they do damn if they don't?
Tyrone Liu via Facebook RE: Julie Chen gaffe: Either she truly just slipped/forgot/mis-spoke (we all do it), or she really is totally out-of-touch. I don't know which.
However……her background makes it difficult to simply give her a "free pass". She didn't just wake up and crawl out of a cave yesterday. She is an ABC, a well-educated pro broadcast journalist that rose through the ranks, and just a few yrs younger than me……meaning if she has been breathing and awake as an Asian in the USA living in BIG cities for the past 40 yrs, she should be cognizant that KIM is a common KOREAN surname. It is NOT "ambiguous" like a small handful of Asian surnames (transliterated into English)…..Lee, Young, King, and some others I can't recall off-hand. Most adult Asians I know have a fairly good sense of at least the origins of most COMMON Asian surnames….especially from East Asia…..Chinese/Japanese/Korean.
Though not authoritative, she has an entry at Wikipedia…. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_Chen
From Qiu Wei via Facebook RE: Julie Chen Gaffe: *cough* korean used to be chinese…korea was only divided from china together with taiwan in the sino-japanese war in 1894…
today, korean remain a recognised ethnicity in mainland china and korean can be taught at public school as a mothertongue in area with korean population… hue hue hue.
From Brendan Seeto via Facebook RE: Julie Chen Gaffe: Korean used to be Chinese??? I don't think so. They have been an independent nation long before and even during Qing dynasty times. They have been an independent people for a long time my friend
From Pierre Nguyen via Facebook RE: Julie Chen Gaffe: Blame media
From Tyrone Liu via Facebook RE: Julie Chen gaffe: ^ I'm thinking she wishes she was using that excuse. LOL.
From Qui Wei via Facebook RE: Julie Chen gaffte: if asian don't know asian, than what can the world know? ya it's sad.