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INSTAGRAM Kim Saira, center, and supporters protest James Corden's 'Spill Your Guts' routine. |
The host of The late Late Show is the latest to feel the wrath of Asian Americans fed up being the butt of comedians' jokes.
The usually affable Corden thought it was acceptable to make fun of Asian food in a segment, "Spill Your Guts," but Kim Saira wasn't laughing. She used her Tic Tok account to express her displeasure.
The usually affable Corden thought it was acceptable to make fun of Asian food in a segment, "Spill Your Guts," but Kim Saira wasn't laughing. She used her Tic Tok account to express her displeasure.
"In the wake of the constant Asian hate crimes that have continuously been occurring, not only is this segment incredibly culturally offensive and insensitive, but it also encourages anti-Asian racism. So many Asian Americans are consistently bullied and mocked for their native foods, and this segment amplifies and encourages it," wrote Saira.
She started a Change.org petition demanding that Corden apologize and stop using the segment mocking Asian dishes. As of June 29, in three weeks the petition had collected about 50,000 signatures.
"The foods that are presented are meant to be 'gross,' as they are supposed to encourage the guest to answer his questions instead. However, many of the foods that he presents to his guests are actually from different Asian cultures. He's presented foods such as balut, century old eggs and chicken feet, and which are often regularly eaten by Asian people."
“I noticed that one of the foods that he presented to someone was balut (a fertilized duck egg that is boiled and eaten from the shell), and balut is like, very specific to Filipino culture,” Saira said on the Today Show. “It’s a food that I have been eating whenever I go to the Philippines with my grandma and my cousins, so it’s a very sentimental food to me, and I noticed that he was presenting it to a guest and calling it gross.”
"I wasn't mad about it, but I was more so confused," Saira, a 24-year-old Filipina and Chinese American activist, said. "I was just wondering why they used a food that was so sentimental to my culture."
As a guest on shock-jock Howard Stern's show and despite the host urging him to not give in to the complaints, Corden announced that he is aware of the petition and that changes will occur so it would not be offensive.
She started a Change.org petition demanding that Corden apologize and stop using the segment mocking Asian dishes. As of June 29, in three weeks the petition had collected about 50,000 signatures.
"The foods that are presented are meant to be 'gross,' as they are supposed to encourage the guest to answer his questions instead. However, many of the foods that he presents to his guests are actually from different Asian cultures. He's presented foods such as balut, century old eggs and chicken feet, and which are often regularly eaten by Asian people."
“During these segments, he’s openly called these foods ‘really disgusting,’ and ‘horrific,’” the petition read. “In the wake of the constant Asian hate crimes that have continuously been occurring, not only is this segment incredibly culturally offensive and insensitive, but it also encourages anti-Asian racism.”
She started the petition because she was offended by Corden describing balut, a fertilized duck egg, a food that as a Filipino American associated with family and part of her culture.
"I wasn't mad about it, but I was more so confused," Saira, a 24-year-old Filipina and Chinese American activist, said. "I was just wondering why they used a food that was so sentimental to my culture."
As a guest on shock-jock Howard Stern's show and despite the host urging him to not give in to the complaints, Corden announced that he is aware of the petition and that changes will occur so it would not be offensive.
“We heard that story, and the next time we do that bit we absolutely won’t involve or use any of those foods,” Corden said. “As you said at the start, our show is a show about joy and light and love, we don’t want to make a show to upset anybody.”
"In my opinion, it is an absolute non-apology, and no accountability was taken," Saira said.
An unfortunate consequence of her crusade, Saira has been the target of online bullies, making fun of lack of a sense of humor and even threatening her life.
"In my petition, I have specifically asked for James Corden to publicly apologize on his show," she continued. "And the reason why I was really specific about that was that I think that it is imperative for his hundreds of thousands of viewers to understand the harm that mocking these foods, rooted in Asian cultures, has on Asian people who still eat them."
