Oh boy. In a year where Hollywood was already on extra-thin (and OK, fine, mildly complex) ice with its adulation of the "Why won't anyone think of the white people?" rewrite of history in The Help, the 84th Academy Awards were already going to be a bit of a potential racism minefield. But for that buildup, it's almost impressive that the producers of the show came so correct in the opening minutes of the telecast, barely missing a beat before marching confidently into a cluster bomb no one in the audience even realized might be there, announcing confidently in the show's opening montage, "For real, we might give a couple black people some Oscars tonight, but check this shit out: Billy Crystal in blackface."
Andrew Ti, the beaten-down mind behind Yo, Is This Racist? brings his talents to the world of media to periodically search for the most racist character in TV and movies.
First, let's get the obvious out of the way. After executive producer Michael Patrick King's surly-ass and hilariously defensive performance at the TCA press tour, and overwhelming fan reaction from the readers of YITR? there really isn't any other choice but for me to proclaim everyone's favorite caricature Han Lee of 2 Broke Girls as the most racist character of the week. Which isn't to say there weren't contenders, including a particularly insane episode of the animated Napoleon Dynamite involving a Japanese exchange student, but the people and the news cycle have fairly loudly spoken.
Earlier this week AMC canceled a panel for The Killing at the Television Critics Association press tour. Ostensibly, the reason was “scheduling conflicts,” although everyone assumed the network feared a mob of rampaging critics, hurt and betrayed by The Killing’s non-ending, rising up as one autonomous being to wreak havoc in revenge. Looks like those critics might have just transferred their vitriol over to 2 Broke Girls?
