Rosie O'Donnell Apologizes For Her Fake Chinese

She won't be able to apologize a second time, Samantha. She and Michael Richards are too busy filming Mel Gibson's adaptation of Mein Kampf.

pulling out the dumb card. huh.

the "apology" still sounds like she is quote-unquote mocking.

Oh and dude, ching chong is not the preferred nomenclature.

people who live in glass houses are gay and asian?

why can't chinese people be more like black people? that's a model minority if there ever was one

I certainly think the "ching chong" remark was pretty offensive. Moreover, I think there's another issue at hand here, which is that O'Donnell isn't terribly intelligent, or funny.

"Wong Brothers Laundry Service - Two Wongs Can Make It White."

For those of you who say that saying "ching chong" is just a jock....I want those people to say it infront of a young asian american male and see what happens...mostly likely ...your ass will get beat down..

P

I was about to say something about making a mountain from a molehill, but then I read the comments and got offended.

Stupid fat dyke. I hope she gets cancer in both tits, which then spreads to that rotten apple cooch of hers, then finally to her brain, so that the only words she's able to utter are "Ching-Chong-Ching."

Nobody who makes jokes should apologize. No violence-inciting language should be acceptable, but there is a big difference between hate and jokes. I proudly make offensive jokes everyday but I would never use hate speech. Nothing irks me more than when people say "I'm for free speech BUT..." Does it hurt someone's feelings? Awwwww

If you didn't mean to be offensive stop bowing down to these cry babies and don't apologize! Now people think making fun of a language is racist?! UGH UGH UGH

Next, Rosie will be in rehab, à la, uh, well, every celebrity who's made faux pas. In other words, it wasn't me talking, it was the booze/ADHD/Vicodin/toad-licking/whatever...

eb, I wish you actually said that instead of thought it, but as a female who may have been concerned for her safety, I understand.

What asians should do, as in this instance, is not let it slide. That's what we're 'expected' to do - just ignore it, keep walking, don't make trouble, blahblahblah. If we want this to keep happening, stick to that advice.

I, on the other hand, choose to get in someone face about it.

I love it how it's always the whities who say "C'mon, lighten up!" - people who probably have never experienced bigoted speech directed at them in their fucking lives.

And if you're a person of color who thinks "Aw, ease up!" Try not to be such an Anglophile and be just alittle bit proud of your heritage, why doncha?

rocknrope: i did think about addressing the guy except i was half his size/weight and had a feeling he wouldn't take kindly to having the tables turned. i applaud you for not letting those incidents slide. maybe next time i'll say something because it really makes me crazy!

Bob: Having lived in Flusing for most of my life, I could care two shits what language the signs are. I am not asian and just because it's not written in "Engrish", that never stopped me from going into those stores. (Oh wait, the "enrish" thing was a joke... in that case, it's okay. sorry.) I would like to think that I'm a little bit more open-minded than that; and smarter too. Just because I couldn't read the sign, I knew if it was a restaurant, or a deli, or a clothing store, or whatever business it might have been. Heck, I even have a chinese doctor. Probably his only latino client. Big whoop!

Re: John Liu: He is no Sharpton. Does he like the limelight? Yeah, but he also goes out into the community to do things that are important. He came to a thanksgiving event a couple of years ago a teen group I was volunteering for put together. All minors, not yet able to vote. No parents, no press, very few asian teens. He eventually donated a very generous amount of money to the orgranization, but those things aren't important to the community I guess.

Lastly, as a gay male, I think Rosie is an idiot and should choose her words more carefully because even though she knew it was a joke (and I agree it was), I'm sure that she has many viewers who think exactly what she said is correct.

There's an enormous difference about making light of the way a language sounds and dropping N bombs for no reason. I hate to revert back to Michael Richards land and discuss if that word is appropriate because Rosie was imitating an accent and using it to make a joke. And to say priveliged people are the only people who say "lighten up" misses the point. We ALL get teased or made fun of for some reason at some point in our lives. Sometimes it is harsh and sometimes it is lighthearted but to cry racism and hatred everytime does two dangerous things. 1) It takes focus away from REAL racism. I will never deny that bigotry exists.
2) It stops free speech. I make lots of hack German jokes at my girlfriend's expense and she never says "Oh that's not fair".

I've been at the end of racist jokes and racist remarks. I don't "brush them off" I laugh at them because they are funny.

#32/Javster

You don’t get it.

Liu is so concerned about Asians being treated equally. Yet his own district is filled with Asian owned shops and restaurants with signs entirely in Chinese or Korean that send a message (whether intentional or not) that English speaking people are not welcome in their establishments.

ER, you are a fucking idiot. If you brush off "light racism" you leave the door open to "Heavy racism". WHy do you think the city tickets people for "quality of life" issues like noise complaints and graffiti? It's been proven that these smalltime things are pathways to city decimating crimes like prostitution and drug sales. You want people to turn the other cheek and then when they do the people who are the taunters just up the ante and say even heavier racist shit. And to say that ching chong is not racist is fucking ignorant. It's the same as making monkey noises to a black guy.

I see nothing has changed since the death of Vincent Chin.
this is why I don't go out unarmed. and if you do stop me, you better have PC. I have a lawyer on retainer.

God, Rosie is so damn UNfunny and UNoriginal. Any comedian who has to resort to "ching chong ching" needs to find a new line of work. Steven Colbert, however, is one funny man! Anyone catch his purposely offensive but extremely funny version of someone doing a bad Chinese impression? It's so bad, it's good! And I'm Asian! Rosie, is that the best you can do to get media attention? So sad...

"The right to freedom of speech equates to neither an obligation to offend nor a duty to be insensitive. If our commitment to free speech is important, our belief in antiracism should be no less so."
- Gary Younge

"Not only are whites kicking us; they are telling us how to react to being kicked."
-Steve Biko

If you Asians don't like it, take the Fung Wah bus back to China. There you will find a billion people saying ching chong all day long and you will be happy.

william- you are lucky to hide behind the internet cause I'd fucking disembowl your ass.

William's mother sucks cocks in hell.

Most you people have issues that need to be sorted out in a constructive way, sooner the better

I didn't know rosie o'fatty was from LI?
That sort of explains it. Guess it hurts when people call you fat growing up that you resort to making fun of others.

Sorry William, the Fung Wah bus doesn't go to China. It goes to Boston. You know Boston? Home of some of the top Ivy League schools in the country, where asians make up 20% of the population?

Don't worry, I gather one day your job will be outsourced to an asian country, so you can visit China too, if you want your job back.

Moron.

I hear ya, bro. As a white person who's tried hard to live in this unjust world I'd like to understand the psychology of all this hatred myself.

I'll tell you this tho; When I walk down the street at night I feel comfortable, safe and totally at ease anytime I'm somewhere with or even completely surrounded by Asians because I know how respectful, polite and educated most of you are. That's MY stereotype of the Asian people. If you, me and another white guy where in the same room I'd instinctively trust you more because I'm fully aware of the fact that we whites have a much higher count of crazy-demented whackos amongst ourselves than your people.

So don't let it get to you. Take it for what it is; the stupid insensitive comment of an overweight homosexual 'comedienne' who's best years have gone by.

IF there really ever were any 'good' years for her.

Bob a booey -- it's fitting you would choose a character from the Howard Stern show as your name -- they use small words you can understand. Almost all of the signs in Flushing have English, but I wouldn't expect you to know that because you are obviously illiterate. Even if they don't have English, this is a free country (or at least it was before Bush).

I hope the person reading this to you doesn't use words with more than two syllables. It's also about time you moved out of your mom's attic or basement and get off the public dole.

People are only sensitive when it's something that affects them. Rosie was recently offended by a perceived slight to gays, yet she mouths off with the "ching chong" thing without a care. You would think that anyone who has been insulted would think about insulting others. But no.

Its not so much what the commie slob Rosie said but the context...The View is the skid row of Liberalism except for Elisabeth. Another example is what the moonbat airhead Behar said yesterday about "whether strokes are man-made" regarding Senator Johnson. WTF is wrong with these people? Liberalisn is a form of mental illness.

At least Angelina Jolie had the intelligence to not deny the wrongness but deny the occurrence of slurring on the part of her bodyguard. Rosie is dumb and too stubborn in her hostility to be clever.

I never watched the Comedy Network show before Dave Chappelle quit. I just remember him as the guy with the “smart eyes” in You’ve Got Mail and his HBO special. However, I did watch him on Inside the Actors’ Studio after the great brouhaha over his departure from his successful show; this was a greatly entertaining interview. Since his quitting of the show received so much media coverage, I can’t understand why his subsequent explanation to James Lipton here and Oprah Winfrey(didn’t watch it) was NOT given equally large media coverage considering the explosive reasons he hinted at in the James Lipton interview.

In no particular order, Dave very carefully advised:

(1) that by wanting to not be a moneymaker and quitting the show invited an incredibly quick response of intentional organized media lynching with no participation on his part to the news stories and no inquiry as to his welfare by his white writing partner although his former partner did express to the media that yes, indeed, Dave went crazy - unlike Michael Richards who has been depicted in the media as having his humor misunderstood when he is videorecorded using the N word with venom and sadism and Rosie O Donnell who is defended for not knowing that the slurs used to ATTACK school children IN AMERICA has ever been used to “intentionally hurt” Asians but no one has bothered to find a past use of ching chong that was reported as harmless and part of American cultural literacy as implicitly alluded to in Rosie’s excuse - way to go for mediocre journalism

(2) that he became suspicious of the created negative image of successful Black men in Hollywood when he noticed that the people running the industry seemed to systematically put the Black male entertainers in women’s clothing (this will echo with Hong Kong male actors (Andy Lau and Edison Chen most recently gave anecdotes) who have refused roles in Hollywood because they have been offered very strange and extremely self-abasing roles including kissing feet that made them suspect from their successful Asian career background that something strange and intentional was afoot with regard to the devaluation of Asian males in American media

**(3) that he could see from a cameraman’s reaction that he was contributing to the wrong kind of amusement and satisfaction by using the “N” word and I have to agree with him here - there are racists who would love to use the N word with all the worst motivations and relish that Blacks are using it against themselves as a future alibi when racists will use the word and sure enough, we have Michael Richards and the idiotic Jerry Seinfeld mewling accompaniment which only made Jerry Seinfeld appear to be completely without any integrity or genuine decency - the enmity if not the retaliation that this will cause will be justified. I honestly believed at first that Rosie O Donnell’s ching chong riff was a calculated defense of Michael Richards following Andy Dick’s followup of the N word. However, Rosie O Donnell’s excuses and reasons in her non apology hark back to Dave Chappelle’s cloaked analysis of nonBlacks getting off on the N word.

Rachel Ray of Buffalo, New York and Rosie ODonnell of Long Island, New York strongly resemble mean and insincere Queens NYC women that I grew up around and later encountered in Manhattan as well but with sufficient familiarity to recognize. We’ve long watched these mean “broads” and remarked on their inherent nastiness and successful phoniness in the media. Isn’t it funny that Hongkong has made it illegal and subject to arrest to use informal racial references while America is backsliding into this incredibly ugly dumb racist dishonest mindset and blurting out “Freedom of Speech” as their bulletproofing? It’s obvious dishonesty that Rosie O Donnell is supported in her claim that she had no idea it was hurtful. Racists in Queens only used ching chong to start a fight otherwise they wouldn’t bother at all. Now we can expect to see many racist outbursts now that media endorses this as harmless bad joking. But will Asian fathers know enough to stipulate on the very first day of school that racial slurs against their children will not be tolerated before agreeing to let their children attend classes as Asian fathers knew to do in Rosie O Donnell’s generation. She’s obviously lying but somehow her media defenders feel that defending her dishonesty and denying awareness is appropriate. How embarassing for America where we used to pride ourselves on our innate decency. As for the young gays who can’t remember Stonewall and the universality of equality from the gay perspective jumping to her defense, you are her niche and cloak of morality - she gains and doesn’t lose by defending gays. DUH.

it's words. it only hurts if you let it. and trust me, there are plenty of taunts for all varieties of us 'privileged whities'. fat, skinny, ugly, bald, short... blah blah blah. grow up and get over your hypocritical selves.

do we value free speech any more than the muslim world going bonkers over a little cartoon?

This Rosie thing is a perfect example of free speech at work. Our country's founders envisioned a "marketplace of ideas" where ideas would compete. Rosie said something ignorant and stupid and more enlightened people called her on it. That's the marketplace of ideas at work.

To compare this to the Mohammed cartoons is wrong -- I don't see anyone thretening to kill anyone or blow up anything -- do you??

allow me to link this excellent response from an Asian female.

http://www.reappropriate.com/?p=588

Where's Barbara Walters in this debacle? Did she laugh and let it slide or did she try and muzzle this hoebag?
You would think she would have some sense and say something or maybe not. I've never considered her a "journalist". Kiss up to celebs and publicists, yes, Journalist, no.
Her job was a news reader and she's a role model for that?????

Here's why, see number 2.

2. If It Were (X), They Wouldn’t Be Mad…

Many of the Rosie defenders argue the hypothetical that if Rosie O’Donnell had cited German or French or Italian newscasters, no one would argue that it was racism. A reader at Defamer asked,

If she’d imitated the Italian language, would anyone have cared?

Another reader at the Gothamist wrote:

if rosie had done it using a “zany” french or british accent, no one would have cried racism. why is it only racist if you imitate a chinese person, yet not someone from, say, germany?

i honestly have been wondering this for years. can someone please enlighten me?

These statements are often delivered in the form of a complaint; they argue that White people are at a disadvantage because they cannot claim racism when their ethnicity is mocked.

The problem with this argument is that neither French, nor British, nor German people are considered non-White minorities in America. Racism does not occur in a bubble, but exists as an ongoing history of racism in America. When Michael Richards made his “fork up the ass” joke at the Laugh Factory, the racism was not that Richards actually wanted to find a Black person and stick a fork up his ass, but because this paralleled a racist American history that included numerous instances of popularized lynchings. The fork metaphor (i.e., equating a Black person with a food item) futher referenced the characterization of lynchings as Bar-B-Q’s.

Similarly, Rosie O’Donnell’s use of “ching-chong”-ery occurred amidst a history of oppression against Asian Americans and Chinese Americans in this country, which had already included use of “ching chong” as a form of degrading and dehumanizing Chinese people. Had Rosie targeted countries of predominantly White people, there probably would not have been a backlash involving racism.

But Rosie chose to demean Chinese people. We, and other members of the Asian American community, have long been targets of discrimination based on race that include mistreatment and xenophobia towards Asian culture and heritage. Therefore, the use of the hypothetical is misleading, and once again, its use changes the subject from racism against Chinese people to perceived mistreatment of Whites.

#28: Chud says: "I love it how it's always the whities who say "C'mon, lighten up!" - people who probably have never experienced bigoted speech directed at them in their fucking lives. "

So white gays never experience bigotry? I'm offended by your callous remark! It seems like racism is the only form of bigotry to some people of color...

Rule 834-174 of Bulletin Board Posting:
Any post you make in which you call someone a moron or stupid should be thoroughly fact-checked and corrected for spelling/grammar.

Example of this rule being broken:
#56: "Sorry William, the Fung Wah bus doesn't go to China. It goes to Boston. You know Boston? Home of some of the top Ivy League schools in the country, where asians make up 20% of the population?"

The Boston Metra Area only has >ONE

That would be number 5.

5. “Get Over It”

Many comments that I’ve read have cited racial minorities as hyper-sensitive. According to them, we are too quick to cry racism, and unwilling to “forgive” the racists when they try to apologize. At TMZ, one reader wrote:

im so sick and tired of everyone being offended. I remember a day when nobody gave a damn. Now you cant sneeze without someone claiming they are offended. Get over it already! call me a craker… i dont care. call me a honkey i dont care.

Another wrote:

F*** ‘em if they can’t take a joke. Jeez. All this racial bullsh*t. Nobody really, truly, gives a sh*t.

Again, this is self-interest of the majority/oppressor talking. For those who experience White privilege, it is hard to grasp what racial pain can mean — they feel it is similar to being called names in a schoolyard, and should be easy to shrug off.

Furthermore, White Privilege in America has come to include being racist against others without being challenged. It’s upsetting to watch those who have White Privilege try to defend their “right” to be racist towards another person. While freedom of speech is grand, it’s hard to imagine why Whites feel justified in being so quick to demand that they be allowed to oppress other minority groups. The question must be asked: why do you feel like you need to be racist?

Gothamist is the the definitive home of the KKK's future crop of young leaders...

My only thought is if Rosie had any meaningful relationships with any Asians, she'd not have said that.

And if any of you commentors that posted the ignorance above had a few more relationships with people who are different from you (or friends in general), you'd realize how what she said is definitely offensive.

When simply staring at eachother, it's easy to focus on our many differences.

It's only when we open our mouths that we see how much we have in common.

Michael,

Use your brain. I was referring to whites as "non-minorities." Clearly, gays are minorities.

Wow, you Americans are so undereducated. It's a good thing a lot of American TV stays in America, not because we'd be insulted by it, but because we wouldn't understand why they'd be considered entertainment. Just like we don't understand how your people voted Bush Jr to be president. Twice. It must be undereducation.

Comment from China

You mean like how Florida voted?

"or whether anyone in China really cares."

i don't know about China but in Taiwan nothing could be less surprising than that a TV personality would make a joke like that making fun of the way another language sounds. considering what was actually said, and what can daily be seen on TV here, it would be positively banal. wouldn't even register.

c'mon....... let's curse out everyone...

hispanics = MEXICAN
blacks = KFC (too many out there... can't choose)
asians = CHINESE
whites = REDNECKS

oh, hey! you! do you happen to be one of the above and not liking your social equivalence? when i call chinese people chinese, they usually explain to me that they're not; this is usually followed up by them being born here and being koreans... most rednecks totally ignore you if you call them redneck. but call mexicans or the kfc people mexican or kfc... i've seen these people pull out their hair, eyes widening, and about to kill you... etc, etc, etc.

everyone should lighten up, if anyone here's telling people to lighten up, and I MEAN EVERYONE! after all, john liu is only a result of over-protecting the hispanics and blacks.

Rosie has a big mouth that doesn't know where to stop is what she is. This isn't about lawyers or her being an unintelligent being, it is about the big words that could or could not be offensive coming out of her stupid LOUD face. Perhaps if you were speaking to a few million Americans (that could possibly be Asian) you wouldn't comment with that "I don't give a sh*t about who this might be offending" additude.

And it really makes me angry imagining her face attempting to apologize about it. She should shut her fat face.

罗姿说狗屁。(Luózī shuō gǒupì.)

That's Mandarin for "Rosie speaks bullshit."

LET ME EXPLAIN ONE THING!!!!! if rosie had cited a german or italian, or whatever accent..the HUGE difference is this....CHING AND CHONG is a very Racially oppressive term, because it has a history behind it much like African americans being equated with monkey sounds..or the N word...A lot of Hate is present in these words and to use them again (even without intent) is offensive to many asians...don't tell us to lighten up unless we can call you the names that you were taunted with. Than maybe all of us minorities will stereotype all white people like you. Not every white person is a F*ckin redneck, so don't lable all asians you stupid pricks. And if you never felt alienated because you've never known what it's like to be judged on the color of your skin, or the shape of your eyes...then don't post anything on this page unless you willingly accept that your a no good f*ck up.....ooooooor just have a point to make....hmmm....i'm hungry.....

Not only is she racist but she's a complete hypocrite. She gets so defensive over anti-gay slurs so it just goes to show she can dish hate but she can't take it.