By Mandy Day
AsAm News Staff Writer
A little more than three years ago, I helped expose the abusive, racist and sexist behavior of dating coach Julien Blanc. The Take Down Julien Blanc campaign piece was the first article I wrote for AsAm News after the media grabbed onto the sickening behavior of an American man accused of harassing and assaulting women in Japan. In the end, after nearly a month of 18-20 hour days by a dedicated group of dozens of people, the campaign died down after Blanc made an attempt at a mea culpa on CNN in a tense interview with journalist Chris Cuomo. The anti-Blanc movement was one of thousands of activist actions that have been successful over the past few years in unmasking more powerful people for what they are, and for me personally, it was my introduction to grassroots, internet-based activism.
The rapid rise of social media platforms has led us to the crux of this article, a new forum to exploit people in Asian countries by primarily American social media celebrities, revealing the struggle Asians face in extricating themselves from damaging stereotypes. Dan Rue and Nick Joseph are Louisiana natives who have become famous for their Instagram videos. An article in Fader Magazine chronicled how the two friends met and became “internet famous”. Now under fire for racist antics in Japan leading to a fake kidnapping of a young Japanese girl, internet sleuthing has uncovered past videos with additional disturbing content and language. The video of the kidnapping in Japan can be found here. Rue has denied that they grabbed an unknowing girl on the street and claims the family was in on the prank. Skeptics aren’t convinced that is the case, but Rue and Joseph have refused to apologize for the video. While a conclusive answer can’t be found on the video itself in my opinion, the offensive stereotypes the actors used prior to their supposed kidnapping stunt is just as disturbing.
The history of people mocking Asian languages and fetishizing Asian women, East and Southeast Asian in particular, isn’t new. Every Asian American has stories to tell about their experiences with this. What is new is the sheer volume of proof that exists on the internet. One could argue that the internet has allowed racism to invade every facet of our daily lives both physically and virtually. Whether it’s the President of the United States making tasteless assumptions about federal employees based on their ethnic background, or some random duo who have two million Instagram followers, social media has exposed us to an incessant barrage of commentary we didn’t have to deal with just a couple of decades ago. We could turn off the radio or television, sequester ourselves in our homes and it wouldn’t touch us for a few hours. Instead, it was the crass old person in the supermarket ranting about there being too many (fill in the ethnicity). Now, that crass old person’s language isn’t just something that witnesses see, it’s caught on video and posted for the world to see.
The widespread accessibility to the internet, and the speed in which news spreads, has drawn people (including myself) into wasting hours on low cost or free entertainment. Whether it’s old people getting puppies for companionship or reckless teenagers experimenting with human slingshots, social media has become big business for regular people cashing in on the need for instant gratification.
Stimulated by large corporations constantly seeking a leg up in a brutally competitive industry, videos as seemingly pointless as recording an individual playing Minecraft, can mean billions in advertising revenue for Facebook, YouTube (and it’s parent company Alphabet), Twitter, etc. To encourage people to post videos, these entities pay people when their media hits a certain viewership level.
That’s not to say that technology hasn’t been beneficial to ethnic minorities. Smartphones now allow every citizen to report police misconduct and brutality. It’s not that these shootings or beatings never happened before cell phone cameras, they just weren’t recorded for the public to scrutinize. Social media has also been pivotal in launching careers of Asian Americans in entertainment while also increasing visibility of people of color, helping break the stereotypes and giving marginalized artists a platform.
The advancement in technology has empowered people, but it has done so at a price. In this case, Rue and Joseph can go overseas and act like they did and make money from it. What responsibility do the most influential tech corporations play in ensuring that these actions aren’t rewarded and normalized? What role do everyday people play in encouraging younger generations not to look at people like Dan Rue and Nick Joseph as role models, but to be global citizens that don’t fulfill the “ugly American” image when abroad? No one is perfect, we all screw up and our pride is taken down a notch or two. During those times, showing humility in the wake of failure is where our humanity is revealed. Three days ago, Rue posted a quote on social media in honor of the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Here is another from the Reverend’s 1965 commencement speech at Oberlin College, “The time is always right to do what is right.”
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