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Music

Why "Asian Girlz" Is Both Innocuous and Infuriating

Laugh as we might at Day Above Ground’s genial cluelessness, the song reminds us that those dumbass stereotypes are still out there.

If a racist caricature is so hilariously stupid that literally no one could take it at face value, is it still offensive? That's what I'm wondering after my umpteenth play of Day Above Ground's "Asian Girlz," which went viral on the strength of its ripped-from-a-Lit-video direction and cartoonishly stereotypical portrait of said Asian girls, who are praised by the band's Mark McGrath and Shifty Shellshock-analogue lead singers for their sticky rice (?), ninja pussy, creamy yellow thighs, Korean barbecue (?), and immaculate genetics making it impossible to tell if the dude that's fucking them is committing statutory rape ("17 or 23? / Baby, doesn't matter to me"; tell it to the judge, buddy!).

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I'm not sure, but I think it's around the time that the titular, tattooed Asian girl uses one of the band members to scrub her cleavage as she takes a bath—an act that's immediately followed by one of them swimming into her vagina—that I figured there was maybe a joke going on. Surely, no one's aesthetic taste could be this gauche. (It's also just a bad song time warped out of 1997, though the hook gets 7 out of 10 "Hey Porsche"s for being kind of catchy despite how awful it is.) Day Above Ground appears to have two non-white members, which means they aren't totally flexing some Rick Santorum steez. Indeed, the statement they later posted on the video's Youtube description shows an entry level but not entirely bankrupt world view…

"This is Day Above Ground reposting this video with a new description as a response to all the comments we received on this video. We appreciate all the criticism and support. Our song 'Asian Girlz' was not written with any malicious, hateful, or hurtful intent. We know it is racy and does push the boundaries further than other songs out there. Understand that we do not promote or support racism or violence. We love everyone no matter what race, religion, or sexual orientation. Please respect our decision to delete any violent, insensitive, or hurtful comment and also one that supports racism. We hope that we can continue with our lives with much love and peace."

… which is something that only a Californian could write with a straight face. I accept that, even if it's a little ham-assed; again, I don't know how any non-mentally ill group could've walked through every step of the songwriting, recording and shooting process without saying, at least once, "Maybe this isn't such a hot idea," but who knows? The song is fetishizing and insulting but they've owned themselves infinite times over by releasing the video; that seems like fair payback for the total lack of self-awareness.

But laugh as we might at the band's genial cluelessness, the song reminds us that those dumbass stereotypes are still out there, deriving their dehumanizing power from how they disregard the nuances of each Asian home country by grabbing a big can of yellow paint and painting over the whole swath. A Chinese girl is not a Japanese girl is not a Hmong girl is not a Laotian girl is not a Vietnamese girl—to say nothing of Indian girls and Pakistani girls and other South Asian girls—but it's all the same to Day Above Ground and any amateur imperialist who'd like to exoticize them all as quivering, submissive fuck dolls you can service all night and bring home to mother. Who cares about cultural differences? We're all the same! All our moms have nice nails, all our restaurants serve shark fin soup. (Just how all fast food restaurants serve Big Macs.) Relatively speaking, this song isn't the backwards-assed development that's led to high-testing Asian students being less likely to get into a good college because we're all supposed to be this smart, but it sure is the white guy asking my Chinese mom on our flight to San Francisco if we're visiting relatives, because of course we've got some fresh off the boat relatives toiling away in Chinatown, rice hat tightly clamped over their bowl cuts. Dude, we're just trying to check out the wax museum and eat some chowder like any other corny tourist family!

No, I don't think it's as actively oppressive as, say, the Hollywood system that's made Ken Jeong our most visible Asian male actor on the strength of playing an accented, sexless stereotype in every role. (Take it from Levy Tran, the model in the video, who Tweeted an apology but didn't distance herself from participation: "It was meant to be light hearted and fun. Satirical. They are sweet boys and not at all racist. That is all I will say. I'm sorry once again.") It's mostly indicative of something deeply lazy that probably can't be solved by any other method but clowning the offenders, despite their naive intentions, because there's no necessary reason to debate a lyric like "I love your sticky rice / Butt fucking all night." I mean… holy shit. That isn't evil, just stupid. Let them learn, and let the video stand as a monument to bad taste.

Jeremy Gordon is a writer living in Brooklyn. He's on Twitter - @jeremypgordon