The 46-year-old comedian tweeted, 'I'm not playing the race card. I'm playing the rice card. #hatersgonwait #winnersgonpun.'
- Jan 13, 2015
AceShowbiz - Margaret Cho has reacted to critics who claimed her North Korean bit during the 2015 Golden Globe Awards was racist. Margaret took to Twitter on Monday, January 12 to fire back at the criticism.
She tweeted, "I'm of mixed North/South Korean descent - you imprison, starve and brainwash my people you get made fun of by me #hatersgonhate #FreeSpeech." The comedian then shared Benedict Cumberbatch's photobomb of her shot with Meryl Streep. "Also I'm a total #cumberb***h so this was living the dream #goldenglobes #benedict4eva," she captioned it.
Margaret then added, "I'm not playing the race card. I'm playing the rice card. #hatersgonwait #winnersgonpun."
The comedian retweeted some tweets from fans who supported her. Dmae Roberts wrote, "Majority of flack @margaretcho has come from non-Asians. What's racist is no other Asians as nominees or presenters. #GoldenGlobes." Jim DeTore, Jr tweeted, "@margaretcho Thought your performance last night was hysterical! If anyone has the right to joke & criticize NK, it's you. #FreeSpeech."
Josh Wolf posted, "The people who think what @margaretcho did last night was racist do know she's Asian right?" Chloe Newsom wrote, "If a German mocked Hitler, are you going to say, 'That could be offensive to Germans'? @margaretcho mocked the oppressors, not the victims." Jonathan T Coleman tweeted, "First everyone's all #IAmCharlieHebdo, then attacks a comedy bit?"
In a phone interview with BuzzFeed, Margaret said she had no regret about her Golden Globes bit. "I'm of North and South Korean descent, and I do impressions of my family and my work all the time, and this is just another example of that. I am from this culture. I am from this tribe. And so I'm able to comment on it. I can do whatever I want when it comes to Koreans - North Koreans, South Korean. I'm not playing the race card, I'm playing the rice card. I'm the only person in the world, probably, that can make these jokes and not be placed in a labor camp."
"I feel if there's negativity, it's other people's judgments about what they feel that Asian-Americans are allowed to do, really. You're putting expectations on us that we have to remain Asian-American, that we can't actually play people from Asia," she went on, "When we have British people playing American icons, there's no backlash. But for Asian-Americans, it's a very particular set of expectations that we are set to maintain, and that in itself is racist."
"If it's Asian-Americans making fun of Asians, we're claiming our own voice, we're claiming our heritage. We're claiming all of the aspects of our own culture, and we're allowed to. Even though it may get us put in a labor camp," she added, "If that happens, you have to send Bill Clinton to come and get me."
