Chinese-American Poet Slams Rosie O’Donnell for Racist ‘Ching Chong’ Routine

February 24th, 2007 7:32 PM

This is way too funny, and requires all fluids, combustibles, and sharp objects to be safely stowed.

NewsBusters readers should be familiar with an embarrassing and disgraceful Rosie O’Donnell moment from last December when she badly feigned a Chinese accent on ABC’s “The View."

In response, a Chinese-American poet named Beau Sia has created a marvelous video that he posted at YouTube Thursday (video available here, h/t Hot Air).

In what he called “An Open Letter to All The Rosie O’Donnells,” Sia first discredited Rosie’s claim that she was simply doing an accent:

Ignorance is not a crime. And believe me, when it comes to accents, you are ignorant. Because “ching chong ching chong” is not an accent. “Ching chong ching chong” is a racist interpretation of a language often associated with being buried alive in a mineshaft, or other such hate-crime fun.

An accent is a vocal affectation of speech. You see, there’s this thing, it’s called a “dictionary.” It tells you the meanings of words. Don’t you know English?...I mean, I don’t even speak Chinese, and I could do a better impression than that.

Sia then tried to chide O’Donnell into recognizing her mistake, and atoning for it:

You see, Rosie, I would never make fun of who you are, and then make you feel wrong for just trying to inform me of why I shouldn’t say whatever it is I’m going to say about plus-size lesbians…Learn from this Rosie. Apologize, darling. [...]

Now is the time, Rosie. We all make mistakes. There’s always room for forgiveness.  

I feel yah, Beau...but don't hold your breath.

*****Update: One of our readers alerted me to another YouTube response to Rosie. Please be advised that this video is rather crude and raw. However, for those that can get passed the vulgarity, it's pretty funny.