4.3.09

She's got the best of both worlds.

Miley, Miley. I feel obliged to put in my two cents on this hot topic. Hannah Montana makes slanty eyes in a personal photo with friends. Some thinks this gesture does not count as offensive because a) She didn't mean any harm and b) there was an Asian guy in the picture.

Neither of those points make her and her friends' gestures any less hurtful and confusing to her thousands of Asian American fans. Cyrus is however, just a 16 year old girl, a child, despite her provocative fashion. Should we judge young Miley for a private photo not meant to be part of a movie promotion. After all it's hard to be a role model all the time and people make mistakes. I'm okay with mistakes.

I'm NOT okay with lame-ass non-apologetic apologies. "I didn't mean anything. They were just goofy faces. Stop picking on me because Brittany is not crazy anymore." WTF? Okay now slanty eyes are goofy? We're taking it out of context. In what context, Miley, is it okay to ridicule an entire race? Did you think digging your own grave with a shovel wasn't fast enough, so you rented a bulldozer?

Miley Cyrus doesn't make me as mad as the adults in her life. Where are the parents, managers, and publicists? They should have stepped up immediately and helped Miley Cyrus with an real response. I don't care if she's a spoiled brat or a saint in disguise. She is a multimillion dollar starlet under the Disney umbrella. Shouldn't the giant team of people working on her image make sure an mistake is handled properly? Shouldn't they have been alerted to the public anger when the Organization of Chinese American demanded an apology on behave of all Asian Americans?

My kindergartener throws a tandrum on a playdate and I make her write an apology letter to her friend. My toddler pulls the neighbor dog's tail and I make her say sorry to the dog. I don't blame Ms. Cyrus. She's only a kid. I hold the adults responsible.

By the way, what about the ENTIRE Spanish basketball team doing slanty eyes for an official photo shoot published in a newspaper in preparation for the China Olympics? Or the Spanish women tennis team doing the same thing?

UPDATE: The Cyrus adults stepped up and issued a second apology. Too little, too late.

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