In the spirit of Jerry Maguire, I submit this mission statement to
the Hollywood community:
I am a Korean-American actor. You can see my work in
one of the most highly acclaimed movies of 1996 and in one of the most talked about scenes
of that year. I play the distraught Japanese-American ex-schoolmate of Marge Gunderson,
Mike Yanagita, in the Academy Award winning movie Fargo. Working with the Coen brothers and Frances McDormand was one
of the high points of my career. Not so much because they are brilliant artists, but
because they are decent, down to earth people who treated me and the rest of the cast and
crew with respect and admiration.
Being an Asian-American actor I continue to struggle to find
roles for myself that are not insulting and stereotypical. My career started with Do The
Right Thing, I was a series regular on In Living Color and I just finished working as a
guest star on one of the highest rated shows on television, which brings me to my next
point. Working with the people involved with this show was an extremely painful experience
for me. A disturbing lack in generosity of spirit and basic human courtesy in addition to
a racial incident on the set has forced me to speak out. These people, by virtue of their
status, money, and power are among the most privileged people walking the face of the
earth, yet they behaved as if they were bankrupt in spirit and incapable of expressing
simple human kindness.
Not only did various key people on the set not have the
courtesy to introduce themselves as we began to work together, they created an environment
of fear and insecurity. One P.A. spoke of having worked on the show for almost a full year
without one cast member ever having said hello to him in that entire time. And on top of
this, the 1st A.D., in a short tirade, called an Asian-American actor to the set over a
walkie-talkie with the words, "I don't have time for this! Where's Hoshi, Toshi or
whatever the f--k his name is get the oriental guy!" He did not even have the respect
to learn the name of the actor, a veteran of 40 years. I was the only one who took notice
while all others proceeded as if it was business as usual. Given the atmosphere on the
set, I did not feel safe to say anything. After all, on the average Hollywood set, finding
a person of color is much like trying to find Waldo. It is a white, exclusionary culture.
If this were an isolated incident, I would not have felt compelled to write this mission
statement. Unfortunately, I find this attitude and behavior commonplace in the Hollywood
culture. I know many people who have experienced this kind of indignity on a movie or
television show set, and you can be sure this kind of thing is going on in the corporate
culture as well.
There are many who would argue that the status and power
people achieve here is part of the attraction and glamour of Hollywood, and others who
climb this ladder of success and are dealt these indignities are just "paying their
dues." I believe those who hold this opinion are part of the problem. Asian-Americans
are under attack in this country right now. Americans of Asian descent who contributed to
the Democratic National Committee are being investigated and harassed, having to prove
beyond what is reasonable and just, that they are actually citizens of this country. It is
no accident that political contributors from places like Europe, Australia or Canada have
never suffered from such scrutiny. A recent issue of the National Review displays on its
cover the Clintons and Al Gore in yellowface with buckteeth and slanted eyes. You can be
sure the National Review would never have dared to paint the Clintons in blackface on
their cover. The fact that they had the grotesque audacity to do this in America in 1997
is nothing less than a call to action, not only for Asian-Americans but for all Americans.
When the rights of one group of Americans are threatened, America itself is threatened and
we shame the ideal of America. Too many Americans have the mentality of someone who just
stepped foot on Ellis Island breathing in the promise of freedom, only to turn around to
the person behind him and yell, "Go back to where you came from you damn
foreigner!"
In movies and television, Asian characters, mostly men, are
subjected to indignity and/or violence or are tokenized, while Asian women are exploited
as objects of sexual desire. You rarely see Asian characters in leading roles that contain
any significant power or influence. The award winning documentary, "Who Killed
Vincent Chin", tells the story of a young Chinese-American man in Detroit who was
brutally murdered by two white men who mistook him for Japanese, and thereby held him
responsible for their unemployment in the automobile industry. These two men were
acquitted and never spent a day in jail. Hate crimes against Asian-Americans are on the
rise in this country and negative portrayals of Asians in the media only encourage this
trend.
There are many who believe Asian-Americans have nothing to
complain about and that we are the "model minority". But the model minority myth
is just that -- a myth. As immigrants, we are often not welcomed. We are treated as
outsiders regardless of how many generations we have been in this country. We are viewed
as "people of color" and face the oppression of racism. We make up more than one
half the world's population, yet in spite of our numbers and contributions to the world,
our images and perspectives are seldom seen. Our histories and our cultures are obscured,
overlooked, buried or tokenized in a world dominated by Western classism. Our voices are
seldom heard, our stories are left untold and our realities are seldom represented by
those who control the means and resources to name and shape a picture of reality. In spite
of our diversity, in spite of our unique histories and cultures, we are often represented
as a single homogenous group. Asians are the nearly silent, nearly invisible, majority of
the world.
We live in one of the most racially divided cities in the
world, Still recovering from the aftershocks of a racial riot/uprising and the OJ Simpson
trial, which made it clear to all in America that white people and black people live in
entirely different worlds. This does not even speak to the many issues involving all the
other people of color in this country who struggle with racism but are left out of the
dialogue by people who see the issues only in black and white. Other cities may choose to
ignore these problems. Los Angeles cannot afford to. The state of affairs in this city, as
well as the attitudes and ignorance of many in Hollywood are what will lead us to our next
crisis unless we talk openly and honestly about what we can do together to solve these
issues. It is my passionate, heartfelt belief that the level of despair being felt in Los
Angeles, as well as around the world, makes this state of affairs in Hollywood completely
and unequivocally unacceptable.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama said in a statement on March 10,
1997, "In the closing years of the 20th century85 a new way of thinking has become
the necessary condition for responsible living and acting. If we maintain obsolete values
and beliefs, a fragmented consciousness and self-centered spirit, we will continue to hold
on to outdated goals and behaviors our century could be called the century of war and
bloodshed. The challenge before us, therefore, is to make the next century a century of
dialogue and non-violent conflict resolution."
There are courageous people all over the world fighting and
risking their lives for liberation and justice. If Nelson Mandela can find the strength to
survive 27 years in prison and emerge as the leader of his nation, if His Holiness the
Dalai Lama can continue to pursue a path of non-violent struggle against the genocide of
one of the most spiritual and beautiful cultures on this planet -- then we in Hollywood
can surely muster up a fraction of that courage and take a stand and speak out against
anyone who does not support the principles of integrity, justice and compassion. We, more
than any other people anywhere in the world have the ability and resources to be generous
of spirit, open of heart and express to the rest of the world, through the various mediums
of communication at our disposal, the very best of the human spirit.
We have within our power the ability to express on a global
scale the divinity that exists within every human being regardless of race, nationality,
religion, class, or whatever other characteristic we use to separate ourselves from each
other. In other words, we can facilitate the ability of every human being to see himself
or herself in every other human being.
Imagine that! White people and black people recognizing
themselves in each other. Jews and Arabs, Irish and British, Chinese and Tibetans,
Korean-Americans and African-Americans, the haves and the have-nots imagine the oppressors
seeing themselves in the oppressed and vice versa. But we cannot communicate this unless
we are willing and able to live it as well. It is time for a revolution. A revolution of
the heart.
Don't wait for some leader to help guide the way. Instead,
find one in the mirror. Become a leader in your life and in your world and stand up for
what is right in every small moment of your life. After all, the only thing that really
exists IS the moment. Know that in each and every moment, you have the ability to help
alleviate the suffering of another human being and thereby remove one drop from an ocean
of suffering and sadness in the world.
"Four score and seven years ago, our forefathers brought
forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal." Do you remember these words? Do you know
who said them? Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address. I first heard these words in the
fourth grade in upstate New York, and I memorized the entire speech so that I could
deliver it to my classmates, all of whom were white, as part of a public speaking
exercise. This memory has just now come upon me and I am astounded by this memory. As a
young Korean-American boy, I barely knew what I was saying. I was only concerned that I
spoke clearly, memorized all the words, and that I continued to move my head left and
right so everyone could see my face. As I remember these words now, as a Korean-American
man, that all men (and women!) are created equal, I realize these words are coming back to
me now in order that I may save my own life. Movies are America's greatest export. It is
the one industry that America has always been the best at in the world. Communication is
our greatest resource. Wake up Hollywood! Wake up America! The world is in a horrible
crisis -- the time has come for us to muster up our courage and open our hearts against
the cruelty of our time and live out of and communicate the most important message of all:
Love. In the process, we will save ourselves from ourselves.
Sincerely,
Steve Park
|
