I’m starting to dread Hallowe’en. It seems like every year, there’s some new offensive costume that makes racist fun of Asians or perpetuates a racial stereotype. I wrote about this back in 2002, when a really sick costume called “Kung Fool” was sold.
Today I read AngryAsianMan.com and saw that mainstream America once again thinks it’s cool to manufacture a caricature of Asians into a mass-market costume: One that’s even available on Amazon.com. The Fee Ling Yu mask is disgusting — the mask itself is bad enough, but there are variations being sold and shown online that include a different cap and thick round glasses.
I grew up with this image of myself and others like me. It’s incredible and sad and horrifying… downright scary… that I still have to see this now, decades later.
Some of the annual parade of costumes simply perpetuate a stereotype, like geisha costumes and wigs that are standard fare. Continue reading
