Jackie Chan Racist?

Scott Hardie | August 15, 2001
Today I got a call from someone at the newspaper about my "Rush Hour 2" review. (It's in the previous entry, if you want to read it.) She saw the movie and wanted to point out several errors in my review.

I just love phone calls like that. It's part of the reason why I love my job. No, they couldn't just edit the mistakes. They had to call me to point them out to me. And do it in a mocking tone. This shit is worth $10 a week.

Anyway, I'll only discuss this one thing. In my review, I mentioned Chris Tucker's racism towards Jackie Chan. (Technically, it's the characters, but I don't care.) The woman from the newspaper was going to change the line to say that both characters were throwing insults at each other. I asked her when Chan said something racist about Tucker. She said it was when he told Tucker, "I'll bitch-slap your ass back to Africa."

At the time, I accepted it, and honestly, I don't really care all that much. But in thinking about the phone call afterwards, I wondered if that was really racist. Chris Tucker is American, but he is of African descent, and Chan wasn't saying anything derogatory about that. Was that racist?

Ultimately, the comment failed my personal litmus test for racism: Does the joke still work if you put someone else in it? No, if you put anybody but a black person in there, the Africa line doesn't work. So it was racist. And really, kind of stupid. Chan should have just said "bitch-slap your ass back to L.A." and nothing more. *sigh*

Kelly Lee | August 15, 2001
I told you when you went for the job that they were WAYYYYY too upitty (is that a word?) for a publication you have to walk through a toolshed to get to. you too will soon have my undieing hatered for the Courier.

Scott Hardie | August 16, 2001
Well, I think "uppity" means optimistic. I would be more inclined to describe them as "giant assholes."