The whole entire blow-up afterward, I thought, was completely uncalled for. It just highlighted the ignorance of the Americans even more than the Australians. & definitely highlighted the media's love to make a big deal out of nothing.
As a Singaporean (not even Australian), I didn't even see the performance as racist. Is it just me or countries that are super sensitive about race, are almost always the countries that comes across lots of problems dealing with racism? The more conscious you are to the racist connotations of a word, phrase, or action, the more 'racist' you actually are. Let me test you on this. When I say 'Yellow' in Chinatown, would you think of yellow in general or would you hush me up frantically thinking I was referring to someone's skin colour? Honestly, I never even knew the Chinese was associated with the "Yellow" until I became more travelled.
It's kind of like the whole issue with homosexuality. Making the term 'gay' sound bad. Making the term 'spastic' sound bad and now nobody can use it! So making a big (negative) fuss about painting your face black, will inevitably cause a stigma. Let's say now for Halloween, painting my face pink, blue and white is alright, but painting my face BLACK is racist? All because of the theatrical minstrel acts founded in America (Link), which the rest of the world really wouldn't be too familiar about - Unless they are mad crazy about learning about American history more than their own countries' histories.
So Americans are offended by the Australians' "tactlessness". Alright, perhaps the performers should have looked into their make up history in detail before performing for the competition. But face it, who'd really research into those things anyway? The show was essentially for Australians. No reason for the Americans to kick such a big fuss out of. And the most important thing to note is that, the performers were mostly non-Whites, something Fox News totally screwed up in reporting (As usual). I was not half as annoyed up till I saw a video of Fox News' exaggerated and totally inaccurate reporting. I guess that's the reaction Fox News always aims for.
It's amazing how the whole thing highlighted Americans' racism and lack of knowledge on the rest of the world, more than Australians. Harping on Australian's aboriginal past, instead of anything else Australians are capable of. Or insisting the performance was of great insult to the people in their country, when the entire world knows how the American media has portrayed other nationalities just as badly or worse, using the term Freedom of Speech in America to excuse themselves from false reporting and making direct condescending jibes at everyone else. I never thought the act was racist. Because why should I care a dime about your Blackface Minstrels past when I have never been to America, never been exposed to any Minstrel shows and have never been affected by them? It's like forcing the Americans to pay more attention to Saudi Arabia's culture and past, and be more sensitive when you make jokes about them when really, their past have no relations to your country's past. Remember the whole saga about Family Guy and Southpark wanting to create a cartoon version of Prophet Muhammad. How come they were excused for not understanding other people's cultures? The American arrogance pisses me off, calling the entire Australian show dopey and calling the audience and Australian judges ignorant. Come on, I'm pretty sure these Americans would know nothing about Australian comedy and their mindsets either.
So again, it all started with a group of multi-racial performers, with no thought of being racist, and then the American media completely sidetracked, insinuating that ALL Australians are racist arseholes. Way to blow things out of proportion for the ratings.
The whole holier than thou reactions happening there, just make me want to gag. Bitch, puh-lease. Keep your hands to yourself and deal with your own internal ongoing racism. Funny how the worst opinions came from Fox News, the station most well-known for being politically INcorrect whose fans make up the bulk of the population of those who are less travelled and know nothing about the rest of the world.
I have to emphasize the following though. I do have American friends and this whole Fox News thing is definitely not representative of all Americans. Most of the Americans I know actually hate Fox News. Tabloid scums.
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