• by George Simpson , Featured Contributor, April 29, 2010

Bill Imada, who is president of the Asian American Advertising Federation for a reason, this week laments: "Can't the ad-agency world be creative without resorting to ethnic stereotypes, exaggerated foreign accents and the demeaning use of talent to promote their client's products and services... (without) perpetuating negative images of any community of people? Perpetuating stereotypes, whether they appear harmless or not, typecasts a group of people as perpetual foreigners who remain at the fringe of American society. They set these communities of people up for constant ridicule and make recent immigrants feel unwelcome and unappreciated."

One wonders if Bill shows up on picket lines outside the theaters where ethnic comedians savage their own brothers and sisters with stereotypes of the worst kind. The only people who can say nigger and not be hung out to dry are black comedians. The only people who can call their women putas are Hispanic comedians. And they do it just for the sake of a laugh.

Does Bill speak out against the stereotyping of Caucasians in ads (or TV shows and movies) where the male "father" figure is inevitably clueless and out of touch with his workers (The Office), his kids (Modern Family), his wife (pick 'em) or his friends (Men of a Certain Age)? Where the "mother" figure is constantly scheming to outmaneuver friends and family? Or takes orgasmic pleasure in serving a meal or cleaning a bathroom? Where the teenagers are rude, thoughtless, sexual and misbehaved? How about the persistently unflattering stereotyping of white gays (prissy, dramatic, flamboyant)? Or white businessmen (ruthless, conniving, cruel, sexist)? Don't see Bill jumping up and down about attractive white women generally portrayed as vapid, oversexed and malleable. Or white athletes as stupid, insensitive bullies.

What Bill sees as stereotypes might be an effort by creative types to capture authenticity in a way that resonates with audiences. One of the dirty little secrets of this politically correct world is that often stereotypes become stereotypes because they capture stereotypical behavior. But there can never be a productive discussion about minority or racial stereotypes without sounding xenophobic, racist or sexist. The reason audiences laugh at jokes based on stereotypes is because they recognize some truth in them, however painful and self-perpetuating. But it is only safe to crack wise about Caucasians.

Nobody gets upset when the world agrees that by and large, white guys can't jump. But you can lose your job suggesting that blacks are generally faster and more agile, a fact supported by the racial makeup of nearly the entire NFL and NBA or any US Olympic track team. It is apparently ok to stereotype those from other countries as long as they are white. Brits are humorless and proper, the French are hateful and dismissive, the Italians are either lovers or mobsters. The Russians are drunken criminals, the Germans are tight-assed and strict. Nothing new here.

What is new is the amazing progress this country has made in assimilating other races and cultures in just 200+ years. Overseas, like they have for thousands of years, they are killing each other over whose sect is God's favorite, or whose tribe gets to run the country or whose cultural traditions should predominate, or just because one ethnic group has weapons and the other doesn't. But this nation offers opportunity without regard to race, color or ethnicity like no other place on earth. If along the way we stop to laugh at a stereotype, that is a small price to pay for a place that pretty much offers liberty and justice for all.