Here at Audrey, we’ve come across quite a handful of racist videos. We’ve seen these videos come  from fraternities, angry college students, and even people who simply want to share their dislike of a culture. Every single time, we wonder why they never stop and think that what they’re about to publish is controversial. Obviously, this thought doesn’t seem to stop them because racist videos continue to pop up on the web. Just as we had come to the conclusion that nothing would surprise us- something did.  We definitely didn’t expect to see a racist video coming from the LA Department Of Public Works.

Using taxpayers money, the LA Department of Public Works put together a video showing a non-Asian man dressed as a geisha girl and sporting a mock Japanese accent. They claim that the video aimed to teach viewers about recycled water at the video’s location- the Japanese Garden at the Tillman Water Reclamation Plant in Van Nuys. Though they claim that the short had good intentions, it was difficult to focus on anything they were trying to say. Instead, our attention was grabbed by the poorly done mockery of Japanese culture.

Greg Kimura, the head of the Japanese American National Museum in downtown Los Angeles, voiced his anger towards the film. “It brings back all the worst stereotypes. The accents, the whiteface. I’m embarrassed for everybody who is involved in this. If there’s a remedy to this, it would be something like an apology and taking it down immediately.” says Kimura.

And that’s exactly what they did. The youtube video was removed and Cora Jackson-Fossett, a spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Public Works, released a public apology. “We apologize profusely that we missed the mark totally. We made a mistake. We’re extremely sorry. It was an attempt at humor that failed,” she said.

Watch the CBS News Report here.

Source

Awesome news of the week: Kal Penn will be returning to Hollywood to play Cobie Smulder‘s love interest in How I Met Your Mother!

The Washington Post has reported that Kal will be leaving his position as associate director in the Office of Public Engagement at the White House for a role on the hit CBS sitcom.

I love Kal in anything he does, whether it’s as an actor or as a government official. But I’m especially excited because I love Kal Penn and I love How I Met Your Mother!

It’s also exciting to hear that one of the lead females on prime time television will have an Asian American love interest. We’re already familiar with Asian Female – Caucasian Male relationships in Hollywood. It’s about time we show some love to our Asian American men out there!

How do you feel about Kal Penn on How I Met Your Mother?

Asian Canadian actress Grace Park may be surfin’ and shootin’ it up in Oahu for her CBS series Hawaii Five-O, but her heart is clearly back home in Vancouver. She’s getting behind PETA to support their latest campaign to save Canada’s seal pups. According to PETA, every year, tens of thousands of harp seal pups — some as young as 2 weeks old — are beaten with clubs, shot, impaled with hooks, and even skinned alive for their fur as their mothers helplessly watch nearby. Get more information at PETA.org.

Issue: Fall 2010

Dept: Personalities

Radical Reboot: Grace Park

Grace Park in Hawaii Five-O. Photo by Mario Perez/CBS ©2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.

For fanboys at San Diego’s annual Comic-Con, at least one good thing came with the end of Battlestar Galactica: Grace Park can resurface on a reboot of another classic television series, but this time donning not a spacesuit but a bikini. When footage of the new Hawaii Five-O, accompanied by the iconic theme music, was unveiled at the pop culture extravaganza in late July, the volume of whoops and hollers shot up in Room 6BCF of the San Diego Convention Center as the scene of Park emerging from the ocean lit up the screen.

Park captivated viewers as the multifaceted Sharon “Boomer” Valerii on the critically acclaimed sci-fi saga Battlestar. Now for the second time Park is not only remaking an old show but is also upgrading a character, Kono Kalakaua, from male to the fairer sex. “I’m creating a niche for myself,” Park joked to a Comic-Con crowd of several hundred.

What is not a joke is that half of the crime-fighting team on the new Five-O, premiering this fall on CBS, is Asian — Daniel Dae Kim (who’s coming off a much-loved series himself, Lost) breathes new life into the part of Chin Ho Kelly. And while Kono and Chin Ho were relegated to secondary status to McGarrett and Danno in the original, there will be more prominent roles for Park and Kim, said Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman, the writers behind the last Star Trek feature, who are executive producing and penning scripts for Five-O.

In fact, Park is ready to duke it out with the boys. “Oh, [Kono] can hold her own with the gentlemen,” she said. No doubt in fanboys’ minds, there’s nothing finer than a vision of Park punching out bad guys in a two-piece. — Jimmy Lee