“Gross.”
That’s how Connie Cheung of Chicago reacted after opening an email from a potential employer.
“Me love you a long time,” it read. The phrase uttered by a prostitute in the movie Full Metal Jacket is too often used to demean Asian women.
Block Club Chicago first reported the email after Cheung made her displeasure known on Facebook.
“Asian females have always been sexualized because of their history with Western males,” Cheung said. “It’s gross. That specific phrase is sexual. It’s not just toward my race, it’s sexual. That’s all I could think of, was, ‘Why? It’s 2019.’”
LATEST STORIES
The email from James McMahon of the Chicago Search Group had been intended for McMahon’s boss, Brian Haugh.
“It was an insensitive, inside joke only meant for my partner,” McMahon said to Block Club Chicago. “It was an insensitive comment, I realize that. It was a racist comment, I realize that …I had no racist intentions. I’m not racist, I’m certainly not sexist.”
Haugh defended McMahon saying the firm has hired a diverse workforce which happens to be “Asian, Black, gay, Spanish descent.”
“Given those facts, a responsible reporter would ask, are these hires/relationships of a racist person/organization?” he wrote.
“I was just shocked because it’s been a while since I’ve personally received such racial and ignorant commentary relating to my ethnicity,” Cheung told USA Today.
Haugh also apologized to Cheung, but according to USA Today, he has also been defiant to some who have lashed out at his firm.
“With all due respect, I am focused on bigger problems than your friend being offended by a movie quote,” Haugh wrote, according to an email given to USA by Cheung.
AsAmNews has Asian America in its heart. We’re an all-volunteer effort of dedicated staff and interns. Check out our Twitter feed and Facebook page for more content. Please consider interning, joining our staff or submitting a story
