My Response

First let me say that I did not know about this event, I was informed by a colleague about Colbert's foundation and was told to check it out. I first saw the clip, read the tweet, saw the reactions.

I presented this lesson with all of the attributes and skills that I have taught my students. To understand the context. First to think about the two separate Twitter accounts. One, managed by Comedy Central acting as the twitter user for the Stephen Colbert Show and the other managed by Stephen Colbert (the character) himself. At first, reading the tweet from The Stephen Colbert show, I couldn't believe what he wrote (not knowing that it was actually ran by Comedy Central). I immediately thought that the "Ching-Chong Ding-Dong" joke was over and definitely over-played, especially after the UCLA girl's YouTube video went viral for what she said about Asian students in the library. Then to see that the tweet had "#Asian" in it to be even worse because anyone who can search on Twitter for Asian, would stumble on this tweet. However, I wanted to learn more about what he was talking about. Why would Stephen Colbert want to show the Asian community he cared? Cared about what?

So here we go...

I watched the episode and I saw what Colbert was discussing. He was discussing Dan Snyder's brand new fund. Snyder is the owner of a billion dollar football team known as the Washington Redskins. The mascot name has racist connotations. Snyder wrote a letter to the fans of the Redskins football team letting them know that he is not actually going to change the name of the Redskins because as he toured and visited Native Americans, he found out that "some" did not have any issues with the Redskins name. However, Snyder found out that many Native Americans are living in poverty. So in order to continue using the Redskins name, while still maintaining honor and a strong relationship with Native Americans, Snyder developed "The Washing Redskins Original Americans Foundation" to help raise awareness and money for Native Americans. A great idea! With a rather silly name, the problem for most people was the term "Redskins" being used as a derogatory or racist label for Native Americans and by using it in his foundation, he pulls out the dichotomy of how he wants people to know that The Washington Redskins care, but they really are Original Americans and this is the Foundation for them... silly enough for satire in my opinion.

Colbert than takes it to the next level, by trying to make fun of racism, by using racism. He plays an old clip of a character he used before named Ching Chong Ding Dong, that was considered offensive, and decides to create his own fund using the derogatory, racial term and adding "for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever." I think Colbert played it wrong by saying Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever, because that takes it away from being a joke about Dan Snyder, which is what I really believe he was trying to prove. Maybe by changing it to The Ching-Chong....Foundation for Sensitivity to Asian-Americans would've made a difference. I'm not sure, regardless I got the joke, but it was distasteful.

If Colbert decided to continue to poke fun at the idea of Dan Snyder's Foundation name being a double edged sword than people would've seen the bigger picture which I believe is that Snyder is using money to continue using the Redskins name by saying "its okay now, because I am giving money to actual Native Americans." By using Asians to help tell his joke doesn't do much to the idea but to perpetuate racism. Which is what happened to a lot of Asian Americans and other activists who called for the #CancelColbert tweet which started to trend.

To wrap up, I didn't like how Colbert used his foundation to Asians as a joke to support Dan Snyder's name for his foundation. Snyder thinks the foundation will help him sleep better at night when he goes home to the fat checks because of the "Redskins" name still being his team's mascot. I am amazed by the power of social media and how movements and actions can change and affect people. How a tweet can be taken out of complete context and turned into a trend to cancel a popular TV show by one person. I think we should all take a step back, Colbert isn't the enemy, I believe he was honestly trying to be funny, without realizing what it is to be a target of racism, as a white man. He struck the wrong nerves in people when he was actually making a good point. Using a term considered racist, to show your "sensitivity" still isn't showing much sensitivity, take note Snyder.