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'Racist' Fox News piece blasted by Asian-Americans and people with basic sense of decency

Yes, there are gongs. And it gets worse.

Keith Wagstaff

on October 5, 2016

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

This is not "gentle fun."

Earlier this week, The O'Reilly Factor sent Jesse Watters to interview people in New York City's Chinatown, ostensibly to talk about the upcoming election.

What followed was pretty much every tired, offensive Asian stereotype you could fit into five minutes of television.

There were gongs. "Kung Fu Fighting" played in the background. At one point, they played a random clip of Mr. Miyagi (who, by the way, was fictional and Japanese).

Watters asks a few stupid questions like, "Do you know karate?" (also Japanese) and "Is it the year of the dragon?" (It's the year of the monkey.)

As someone who is half Asian-American, and grew up with mostly Asian friends, this was familiar grade-school-level racism to me, like someone squinting their eyes or speaking in a fake accent.

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But even worse was when Jesse Watters -- who seems like a caricature of a pompous reporter on The Daily Show, but isn't -- asked people who appeared not to speak English well questions, and the show played cricket sounds or old movie clips as they struggled to answer.

He might as well have just screamed, "Look, this immigrant can't speak English!" while laughing into the camera.

As expected, plenty of people had a problem with the segment.

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Politicians also expressed their outrage:

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On Wednesday, the Asian American Journalists Association demanded Fox News apologize to the Asian-American community for its "racist and offensive" segment:

Host Bill O’Reilly called the segment “gentle fun.” There was nothing gentle or fun about it. It was rude, offensive, mocking, derogatory and damaging.

Fox missed a real opportunity to investigate the Asian American vote, a topic not often covered in mainstream news ... We deserve far better treatment and coverage than we’ve been given by this Fox News report.

When Mashable reached out to Fox News for comment, a spokesperson pointed to several recent tweets from Jesse Waters.

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So there you go. His segment was filled with political humor, not clumsy racist stereotypes. Thanks for clearing that up, Jesse!

Bonus: Watch how a wheelchair-bound boy 'hiked' to the tip of Australia

Topics Racial Justice

Keith Wagstaff

Keith Wagstaff is an assistant editor at Mashable and a terrible Settlers of Catan player. He has written for TIME, The Wall Street Journal Magazine, NBC News, The Village Voice, VICE, GQ and New York Magazine, among many other reputable and not-so-reputable publications. After nearly a decade in New York City, he now lives in his native Los Angeles.