Anjelah Johnson: Racist or Not?

Bumping this up, since I received a comment from a fellow blogger this afternoon. Blogger Ashleigh mentioned a video Anjelah is in called "Bon Qui Qui". I went to Youtube to check it out. HILARIOUS! I didn't even realize that she was on Mad TV. She has really come up! See below:




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Orignally posted on 1/31/07

Anjelah Johnson is a Latino up-and-coming stand-up comedian and actress. I found a Youtube clip on the blog TheThink with Anjelah doing a routine about a visit to the Nail Salon. In this 4 1/2 minute clip, she does a very good imitation of the Vietnamese women that work in these salons with a pretty good Vietnamese accent to boot.

I should note that blogger Angry Asian Man made a good point in that he's not a fan of non-Asians doing comedy that mocks Asians. I feel him on that one. If Anjelah were doing a routine where she was mocking Vietnamese in general , I would have a major problem with that. In fact, you may remember that I was very hard on Rosie O'Donnell for offending Chinese on "The View", and it would be hypocritical of me to give someone else a pass for doing the same thing. In Rosie's case, she mimicked the way all Chinese people in-general would sound if one of their networks ran a story about Danny DeVito. She used nonsensical mutterings such as "Ching Chong Chonk" that don't form real words in Chinese. That was very offensive to Chinese as a group. However, in Anjelah's case, she is recounting a specific experience in a nail salon. The humor is based on the dialogue she has had with women that work in nail salons, not a mockery of Asians in general. Angry Asian Man also points out that he has received lots of email on the subject of Anjelah's video clip from Vietnamese. 50% of the email has been pro-Anjelah, and the other 50% has referred to her as a racist! Such is life.

This clip will most likely be funniest to those who have ever visited a nail salon. I live at Nail, Talk, & Tan in midtown, so this was right up my alley! She was 100% accurate and her timing is impeccable. See for yourselves and make your own decision.