To be honest, I do not care for the Oscars. I do love a well-made movie, but the hype over celebrities has made the awards ceremony a popularity fest rather than a proper celebration of the art. With every passing year, the Oscars have flown under my radar, until this year. The combination of the #OscarsSoWhite tag emerging and Leonardo DiCaprio being nominated for the fifth time made it impossible for me to feign disinterest. The morning after the ceremony, I checked to see whether the issue of racial diversity in Hollywood had been addressed and whether DiCaprio had finished his fifteen-year quest to win an Oscar. I found the answer to both: Chris Rock’s controversial monologue and DiCaprio making thousands of memes like this one outdated:

The Oscars were mildly entertaining for me until I found out about this joke.

My reaction was quite complex. Denial, anger and confusion all mixed into a stream of consciousness that would confuse even Virginia Woolf. “No way. That did not just happen. It couldn’t have. Did people actually laugh at this joke? This is entertainment at the expense of three innocent little kids and they’re laughing? WHAT THE F***. We literally had Chris Rock monologue about racism being an issue in Hollywood and he just did that. He literally said 'We want black actors to get the same opportunities as white actors.' Why would he say that and then make a joke that Asians and Jews should only be accountants?”

I immediately checked to see how others had reacted to this gag, and many reacted like I did.

Everyone pointed out the double standard that Chris Rock had set up, which undermined an important issue. By posing Asian kids as hardworking accountants, Chris Rock enforced the stereotype that Asians are “the model minority” and should only be in business or STEM careers. Not only is such a joke classless, it is also dangerous. This stereotype teaches others to turn down Asians from opportunities because they are not “in the right career.” This may play a part in why Asians have had only five percent of roles in Hollywood. It is easy to dismiss an Asian actor if that actor is not taken seriously.

Because of the deeply rooted dismissal of Asian actors and actresses, I also pitied the children in the gag. As they continue their careers, they may be rejected or placed in secondary roles. Some of those roles may require them to be part of a trope that enforces a stereotypical image of Asians in the media. Because of their ethnicity, it will be difficult to be hired for major roles based on their talent alone.

I don’t think this joke was all bad, though. We are aware that there is a lack of diversity in Hollywood, but I think that we have forgotten about other races. Asians have always been invisible in the media. At least, Chris Rock brought the issue out to the public.