I was thoroughly offended by the article, and my friend and I drafted the following letter and sent it to Details:
Details Magazine/Whitney Mcnally,
Let me tell you who I am so you can better empathize with my opinions. I'm an Asian American male in his early 20's attending Columbia University. I do not have a subscription to nor do I read Details magazine. I wear the occasional semi-designer piece of clothing. I am straight. I was born in Asia. I consider myself American.
I am not the type of person who is easily offended by the occasional non-politically correct joke. I think America would be a better place if everyone is comfortable enough with each other's racial identity that one can make a benign racial joke in good humor without being labeled a racist. When the whole Abercrombie vs. Asian community commotion occurred, I was not offended by the shirts displaying Asian-related racial jokes; in fact I was tempted to buy a few of those shirts to show people that a little sense of humor is a wonderful thing to have. I do not think those shirts were created with the intention of making a malicious stab at Asians. Your "Gay or Asian" piece in this April's issue of Details magazine, however, was different. I was offended.
First of all, the sheer volume of Asian stereotypes you managed to squeeze into those 300 or so words astounds me. It really takes talent to construct a piece of writing with such a high density of racial stereotypes. Unfortunately, your talent was misguided and inappropriately used. A lot of those phrases go beyond the realm of friendly jester and into the domain of racist pig. The most grievous of your racist remarks is the following line: "Ryan Seacrest Hair: Shellacked spikes, just like that crazy cool Americaaaaaaaan!" That's stooping to the lowest denominator, making fun of an immigrant's pronunciation and usage of their non-native second language. To tell you the truth, even if I were not offended by the comment, it doesn't even qualify as humorous. That's pretty sad. A lot of your other remarks just don't make any sense; to be funny, your jokes have to be somewhat grounded in reality and truth. Perhaps it's my own ignorance, but I was unaware there was a sexual position called "General Tso-style." "Bonsai Ass?" I was not aware the word Bonsai had an American meaning besides describing a particular style of Japanese trees. Perhaps you meant gnarled and bumpy like a Bonsai tree, but I don't see how the queer eye would find that attractive.
Furthermore, I'm not quite sure I understand the underlying message behind the piece. Are you trying to say that Asians make the best gays? Are you saying fashionable Asians are gay, or easily mistaken for being gay? Is there even a message being conveyed, or is the piece just a bunch of racist nonsense? If the piece was just about fashion, that might lessen its offensiveness. Yet you talk about "Delicate Features" and "Ladyboy Fingers," which are 1. incorrect Asian stereotypes and 2. not relevant to the fashion theme you establish. Again, humor is most potent when it is used accurately to convey a message. Had your writing been humorous, I could have perhaps overlooked the racism and gave it a good chuckle or two. Instead, your piece fell well short of comedy, landing dead center on trashy racist drivel.
I am trying really hard to give you the benefit of the doubt - trying to convince myself that you are not a malevolent racist at heart. I would like to believe that because you needed to fill that page up with content before the deadline, you were forced to come up with some hodgepodge of ideas loosely related to a last-minute desperation theme and unfortunately you and your editor(s) did not recognize the incredible callousness and racism of your piece. However, I am saddened to say that I have my doubts about where your true sentiments lie. Regardless, it would be in your best interest, along with that of Details magazine, to recognize potentially racist (and ineffective) pieces of writing and make the necessary changes before they are read by the consuming public. Afterall, Details is a business, and how does a business make money if it offends its customers?
Try a little harder next time Ms. Mcnally.