Opinion / The ‘slant-eyes’ pose is just as offensive ‘blackface’

Feb 16 , 2019

Katy Perry pulled her line of shoes from stores after a ‘blackface’ controversy. Photo: Instagram @livingwrite

While Gucci and Katy Perry responded to allegations of ‘blackface’, why have claims of ‘yellowface’ not led to the same reaction?

There is a lot of ambiguity out there over whether the ‘slant-eyes’ pose is offensive. While it made headlines in the past year, most notably during the World Cup soccer tournament in Russia when US-based Telemundo television hosts James Tahhan and Janice Bencosme used the gesture while reporting on South Korea’s triumph over Germany, there is no agreement that ‘yellowface’ is equally offensive as ‘blackface’.

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When I learned about blackface, the history of minstrel shows, its connection to Jim Crow laws that enforced racial segregation in the United States from the late 19th century all the way till 1965, I empathised with the history of subjugation and violence it entailed; I knew that it was unacceptable.

So when Flanelle Magazine stood by its decision to publish a photo of a model making a slant-eyed gesture in an Instagram post – which has since been deleted – I am offended, and appalled that supposedly learned individuals from culturally diverse country like Canada could think this is OK in this day and age. The online publication has still to apologise.

As Robert G Lee, associate professor of American studies in Providence, Rhode Island, stated in his book Orientals: Asian Americans in Popular Culture: “Yellowface marks the Asian body as unmistakably Oriental; it sharply defines the Oriental in a racial opposition to whiteness.”

“Yellowface exaggerates ‘racial’ features that have been designated ‘Oriental,’ such as ‘slanted’ eyes, overbite and mustard-yellow skin colour”. Mickey Rooney did that for his character Mr Yunioshi in the film Breakfast at Tiffany’s, which is a prime example of yellowface.

There are 50 million overseas-born Chinese in the world, a figure that includes those in Southeast Asia, but since overseas-born Southeast Asians would have also been victims of yellowface, we can safely assume that number is accurate. If we include Asians who have encountered this type of bullying in other countries, this number could easily have trebled.

While fashion powerhouse Gucci quickly apologised for its balaclava’s likeness to blackface and Katy Perry pulled her line of shoes from stores after another blackface controversy. Flanelle refused to apologise, choosing instead to “seek the perspective of its team”.