Wordsole

I read celebrity gossip sites. Perezhilton, dlisted and tmz are all on my list, though more and more, I find myself ignoring them. There’s a lot of fat hate/racism/sexism and general misanthropy on them that weighs on even my sarcastic self. However, occasionally a story catches my eye that isn’t just fluff. Sometimes it makes me smile. Most of the time, it pisses me right off.

Miley Cyrus will never win a Nobel Peace Prize or enter Mensa or solve that whole cold fusion dilemma, but then again, neither will I. The girl is 16 and sheltered and privileged and spoiled, but so are 90% of Hollywood types. It doesn’t make her a bad person.

For all her sweetness in interviews and on stage, MC has a talent for acting like an assmunch and having it go public. Not too long ago she made a video with a friend in which she mocked Disney tween stars Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato and later apologized for it.  People stopped caring almost before it happened, because a shitty little video made by a 15-year old doesn’t need to be news.

Flash forward a few months. Cyrus is now 16 and complaining about driving a used Porsche, because, you know, spoiled. The Porsche comment raised some eyebrows, but it’s her recent misstep that makes her even harder to stand. In a photo that found it’s way online, she and a group of her douchebag friends are sitting on a couch pulling their eyes back so they will seem slanted. It’s a face that little kids (and adults that should sure as fuck know better) make when they want to mock Asian people. And it’s racist bullshit.

The photo is even more galling, because one of her friends, who is sitting right next to her, is Asian. He isn’t making the face. I can’t and won’t speak on why that is, but at the very least, his abstention from the “harmless fun” stands out.

Once the photo leaked, several Asian-American groups asked for an apology. Miley Cyrus took to her website.

Well, I’m sorry if people looked at those pics and took them wrong and out of context! In NO way was I making fun of any ethnicity! I was simply making a goofy face. When did that become newsworthy?

It seems someone is trying to make something out of nothing to me. If that was anyone else, it would have been overlooked! I definitely feel like people are trying to make me out as the new ‘BAD GIRL’!

The “goofy face” as she calls it is not just anything. It’s a very specific way to mock people of Asian ancestry. And her participation in that kind of act is problematic whether she understood what she was doing or not.

If she did know, even vaguely, that pulling back her eyes was in some way about “looking” Asian and did it anyway, then she’s a racist ass, and she needs to issue a real apology. Othering people and mocking them for their physical characteristics is ugly and small and mean.

If she didn’t know, then she needs to educate herself and apologize for her ignorance. Look, not knowing that you’re acting in an offensive way doesn’t give you a pass to continue as though it doesn’t matter. If I call my friend a bitch believing that the word is affectionate rather than diminishing, and she calls me on it? I owe her an apology. And not some half-assed, I’m sorry you’re offended apology. A true mea culpa.

Seriously, for reals now. Ignorance of racism does not act as some kind of protective shield. Like it or not, Cyrus is a role model for a lot of young girls. If you’re wondering, I really don’t like it. An apology for either her intent or her ignorance would remind them and other fame-obsessed people that ridiculous, racist assholery isn’t okay. It wouldn’t magically eradicate bigotry, but it would sure make Miley Cyrus seem like less of a dink.