Opinion | The Oscars are more diverse now, but Hollywood still has work to do in stopping Asian hate
- Even as the Academy recognises Asians, we must not ignore the fact that, amid the coronavirus and a virus of hate, Asian stereotypes remain insidious
- A connecting line can be drawn from the images Hollywood has created of Asians as perpetual foreigners to the all-too-real news images of attacks on Asians
Many in Hong Kong who took to the streets in 2019 might also have been hoping that director Anders Hammer would win an Oscar for Do Not Split, a short documentary about the protests. (He did not.) Better Days, Hong Kong’s first Oscar submission to be nominated for Best International Film since 1993, was also in contention. (It, too, did not win.).
This year, however, I was not just looking at who would win or lose. I was also paying attention to what had been scripted for this year’s Oscar presenters after a year that saw anti-Asian violence increase in the United States, where I have been based during the pandemic.
Introducing them as “hard-working” accountants at PwC, the firm that tabulates Oscar votes, Rock went on to say, “If anybody’s upset about that joke, just tweet about it on your phone that was also made by these kids.”
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Many, including actors Constance Wu and Jeffrey Wright, did do that, taking to Twitter to call out the comedian on the Asian joke on the very night when Rock and several presenters remarked on the lack of diversity among the Oscar nominees.
