MARCH 2009

Was Toby Keith's Gesture "Racist"?

By Jennifer Kradenpoth

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Country singer Toby Keith was recently launched into the media spotlight -- and its criticism -- at the Nobel Peace Prize after-party in December of 2009. Alongside Will Smith and Wyclef Jean, Keith participated in a performance of "Rapper's Delight." When Smith rapped the word "yellow," Keith pulled back his eyes in a manner that stereotypically links the word "yellow" to the Asian community. The Asian American Justice Center and Media Action Network for Asians, among other groups, condemned his action as "racist" and "offensive." Keith and his representatives maintained that the gesture was not used with ill will.

The event and its controversy served as a catalyst for the Quick Poll question featured on DiversityCentral.com in January:

Do you agree with many Asian Americans that the impact of Toby Keith's gesture was offensive regardless of his intent?

Two-fifths of respondents (41 percent) answered with a definitive "No," indicating the gesture was not offensive. About a third of respondents (28 percent) felt the gesture was "somewhat offensive," while a far less number (17 percent) asserted, "Yes, it was definitely offensive." A near equal number of respondents, 14 percent, were not sure.

The majority of readers did not agree with Asian Americans who deemed the gesture offensive. Many indicated only partial agreement, or a level of uncertainty regarding its inappropriateness.

Toby Keith's dilemma is not the first of its kind. The Spanish men and women's basketball teams made headlines at the 2008 Beijing Olympics when they posed for group photos on the court, all stretching their eyelids back in a similar manner. The Spanish teams insisted the gesture was not meant to be racist, but eventually apologized following media scrutiny regarding the host country's potential reaction.

The issue came to media attention once more last year when photos of pop star Miley Cyrus, known for her Disney stage name "Hannah Montana," surfaced with the Cyrus and friends performing the same gesture. Some websites and organizations, including the Organization of Chinese Americans, condemned the gesture as "offensive" and something that "encouraged and legitimized the taunting and mocking of people of Asian descent."

Whether a particular gesture in a given culture may be considered offensive is without question. American culture is quite familiar with the intended meaning of the middle finger, for example. The problem arises, however, over whether a gesture indicating a defining physical feature of a race or group of people can be considered offensive. This in turn opens a larger can of worms: Can a gesture be racist?

American society is well versed on the media impact of spoken racial slurs. In April of 2007, radio host Don Imus was fired from his position at CBS radio following uproar over racist comments directed at the Rutgers women's basketball team, many of whom were women of color. But the idea of a racist gesture has not been thoroughly tested.

Three explanations may exist for the mixed and often polarized reactions: the sometimes-ambiguous nature of gestures, the limited and restrictive representation of Asian Americans in the media, and the lack of public awareness concerning the marginalization of certain minorities.

The nature of gestures is physical. Unlike words, which convey information through sound or written documentation, gestures require immediate witness or video recording for the smoothest possible translation. And while they carry distinct meanings such as the hand-over-throat "choking" gesture, they are limited in the amount of information they can convey at one time. Toby Keith's "slant-eye" gesture can be interpreted as a reference to the shape of some Asian eyes, but more abstract meanings, such as intended ridicule, can be harder to discern.

This is one of the dilemmas of visual representations of race: what qualifies as "racist?" How thin is the line between description and derision? Anatomically inaccurate blackface performances are largely absent from the media in the wake of America's slave past and its struggle to elevate marginalized African Americans. Yet, caricatures such as Mickey Rooney's "Mr. Yunioshi" in  Breakfast at Tiffany's, complete with buckteeth, squinty eyes, and yellowface makeup, remain. Recent public showings have garnered harsh criticism from groups such as the Asian American Media Watch, who feel that showing these images is "tantamount to condoning racism."

Media representations of Asian Americans are a key concern of Asian American groups. The Media Action Network for Asian Americans cites the propensity to label "Asian racial features, names, accents, or mannerisms as inherently comic or sinister" as one of many persistent problems. The hesitancy of viewers to call the "slant-eye" gesture offensive may stem partly from this media treatment. Interestingly, both Keith's and Cyrus's responses reflected similar sentiments: the gestures were either in good will (merely descriptive and not intended to hurt) or "goofy" (a source of humor).

The reluctance and confusion surrounding these gestures and caricatures seem to indicate that the American public is most uncomfortable with stereotypes that are well documented and deeply grounded in our cultural history. The stereotype of African Americans and their supposed "affinity" for fried chicken is strongly American; a recent Australian KFC ad was pulled after American outcry over its depiction of a lone white fan appeasing lively black West Indies fans with fried chicken during a cricket match. Stereotypical words, images and caricatures of a group with a prominent, media-heavy history of oppression are quick to draw reaction and scrutiny from members outside of the group.

In short, it may be that viewers respond strongest to the racism society knows best, and a lack of awareness about the struggles of other races results in polarized opinions. The "slant-eye" gesture, after all, is in recent use as part of the physical gag of the children's rhyme, "Chinese, Japanese." The gesture in this game is not a reflection of reality, and is potentially hurtful as it implicitly derides a physical feature of a race, but this knowledge is largely lost on small children who are not educated about its inaccuracy.

Unfortunately, the histories and struggles of Asian Americans are, in relation to other minorities, under represented. The stereotypes of inscrutability -- being "scheming" or "untrustworthy" -- or the use of the caricatures of buckteeth and thin mustaches are not treated with the same level of visible and vocal criticism as blackface or comparisons to jungle living. Under representation is a double-edged sword in this regard: it not only limits understanding of the historic struggles of Asian Americans, but it effectively ensures that any image, including one that may be deemed offensive, is less likely to become a topic of public consideration.

In summation, responses to Toby Keith's behavior indicate that the realm of gestures is an ambiguous one, where references are largely descriptive and abstract concepts such as "racism" are difficult to detect. Adding to the complexity of emotions are the different attitudes society holds about media depictions of race: the more overt and explicit, the greater the disapproval. Under representation of racial history, and restrictive images within whatever representation there is, make it all the more difficult to detect what certain groups find offensive.

SOURCES:

Adams, Guy. "' Racist' Gesture Threatens Miley's Wholesome Image." February 6, 2009. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/racist-gesture-threatens-mileys-wholesome-image-1547650.html

Asian Week. "'Breakfast' Is Out to Lunch." August 27, 2008. http://www.asianweek.com/2008/08/27/breakfast-is-out-to-lunch/

Faber, Judy. "CBS Fires Don Imus Over Racial Slur." April 12, 2007. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/12/national/main2675273.shtml

Lowe, Sid. "Olympics: Spain's Eye-Catching Faux Pas." August 11, 2008. http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/aug/11/olympicsbasketball.olympics20081

Media Action Network for Asian Americans. "Restrictive Portrayals of Asians in the Media and How to Balance Them." http://www.manaa.org/asian_stereotypes.html

Stanglin, Doug. "KFC Australia Pulls Fried Chicken Ad Called Racial Stereotype." January 8, 2010. http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/01/kfc-australia-pulls-fried-chicken-ad-called-racial-sterotyping/1

Associated Press. "Asian Groups Outraged Over Toby Keith's 'Racist' Gesture During Performance." December 16, 2009. http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2009/12/16/2009-12-16_asian_groups_outraged_over_toby_keiths_racist_gesture_during_performance.html#ixzz0g1YFwun8

Associated Press. " Miley Cyrus: I'm Not Racist." February 5, 2010. http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2009/02/05/miley-cyrus-im-racist/

Associated Press. "Spain Basketball Players Say Gesture Wasn't Racist." August 14, 2008. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/olympics/2008112536_olyflap14.html

Editor's note: Every other month, DiversityCentral.com posts a new Quick Poll to gather data about people's opinions on diversity and cultural issues. Starting this month, we're providing this special feature on our Quick Poll Data. You'll find the previous month's data as well as the data from the two preceding months. Data prior to the last three months is archived in Cultural Diversity at Work Archive.

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