The Goonies

July 22

Last night we returned from a trip to Oregon which included a visit to the Goonies house in Astoria. We took pictures, walked around a bit, and the girls vowed to watch the movie when we got home. So at 9:30 last night, the girls started the film. Curt and I joined an hour in, and I noticed something that I hadn't before. Data's (Jonathan Ke Quan- the only Asian person in the film) had a stereotypical Asian accent. When I mentioned this, one of our girls responded, "are you sure he doesn't have an accent?" I responded, "100%." I know this because I don't find his accent believable; it is meant simply to make people laugh. Over and over, he says "booby" instead of "booty." I know this because Hollywood didn't accidentally hire someone with an accent. They hired someone who could do the accent because they knew it would make people laugh.  He was Asian and there to provide comic relief and be the smart one, of course.

But I did have a tiny bit of doubt. I wondered if I am going a little nutty and turning everything into race. So I did a little research. I found this review on someone's blog about the commentary that accompanies the 25th year anniversary edition of the film, and the blogger shares that, "One of the best moments happens throughout the commentary as the cast continually forces Jonathan Ke Quan (Data) who has no accent whatsoever to speak in broken english which he does begrudgingly several times." Imagine, 25 years of having to reinforce stereotypes, and to have your castmates "continually force[]" you. The fact is there is no escape from moments like that. What are his options if he is a)just tired of doing it, or b)finds it horribly demeaning and just wants to refuse. This is what he was paid to do. Exhausting. I couldn't find anything on the person who played his mom, but his dad was also played by a Chinese-American who pretended to be Chinese because there is nothing funny about a Chinese-American who speaks standard English.

It isn't simply that the stereotype is offensive, but that it exists in an American society where there are no (or perhaps by 2015, very few) representations of Chinese or Chinese-American people (or Japanese or Korean or Vietnamese, etc) that are complex, human, balanced, layered, etc. If you don't know how this may affect you, or you have no idea what I am writing about, watch Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Ted Talk, The Danger of a Single Story. This is my FAVORITE Ted Talk. I show it to my students every year when they question why we have to read texts by Native Americans- didn't they do that last year? I also respond apologetically; they will be forced to read many more texts by white men.

I have watched The Goonies a number of times, and at least once with our girls, and somehow this stereotype didn't stand out. But now, sitting with Frances, I have to wonder, what does she see and take-away. What other things am I not aware of? How do I address it with the white kids in our family? Should I talk about it differently with Frances? Should I talk about it at all? The Goonies is a funny movie. I don't intend to stop watching it, but I'd love to know what Frances experience is without asking her. Not possible. What to do?