Earlier this week, a photo of Miley Cyrus and her friends making “slant eyes” came out and an Asian-American organization (OCA) claimed that the photo and the gesture was extremely racist. Many of the commenters disagreed, claiming that people were being overly politically correct, that Miley shouldn’t even apologize. I thought that Miley should apologize and just leave it at that.
Now we’ve got an answer from Miley. She apologizes in a round-about way, basically saying some version of “I’m sorry YOU over-reacted.” Miley wrote on her blog “I’ve also been told there are some people upset about some pictures taken of me with friends making goofy faces! Well, I’m sorry if those people looked at those pics and took them wrong and out of context….In NO way was I making fun of any ethnicity!”
It would have been better if she just said “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything mean, racist or derogatory. If it was taken that way, I apologize.” Instead Miley goes off in her usual self-absorbed, bratty teenage way. She even brings Britney Spears into it. People Magazine has more details.
The Disney star found herself in hot water this week after a photo of her pulling the corners of her eyes with a group of individuals squinting surfaced.
The OCA, an organization dedicated to advancing the social, political and economic well-being of Asian Pacific Americans in the U.S., slammed Cyrus for the photo, saying, it “is offensive to the Asian Pacific American community and sets a terrible example for her many young fans.”
But while some say she was mocking Asians with the pose, 16-year-old Cyrus denies any offense.
“I’ve also been told there are some people upset about some pictures taken of me with friends making goofy faces! Well, I’m sorry if those people looked at those pics and took them wrong and out of context!” Cyrus says on her official website. “In NO way was I making fun of any ethnicity!”
Last year Cyrus blamed controversial photos that appeared in Vanity Fair – which included a pose where the young singer looked topless – on her youth. But this time Cyrus believes the media is looking for a new target.
“I definitely feel like the press is trying to make me out as the new ‘BAD GIRL!’ ” Cyrus writes. “I feel like now that Britney [Spears] is back on top of her game again, they need someone to pick on! Lucky me!”
Still, Cyrus reminds fans that she doesn’t want to let them down and has handled her past blunders accordingly.
“In NO WAY do I want to disappoint any of you!” she says. “But, when I have made mistakes in the past, I feel like I’ve owned up to them and apologized.”
From People
Miley may have a point about Britney Spears, but she may not. Britney was at the top of her game when she began to find the 24-hour coverage overwhelming, and Brit began a multi-year process of self-destructing. In Britney’s case, there’s plenty of blame to go around – to her parents, to K-Fed, to the media, to her management team, and mainly to Britney herself. And by the by, even on Britney’s worst day as a teenager, she was never as bratty as Miley.
Miley’s eventual downward spiral is still years away, in my opinion. She’s still young, and she will continue to make mistakes both large and small. But one of the biggest mistakes her parents, her management team and the media make with Miley is allowing her to think she’s the center of the universe. Once Miley comes to the realization that she’s just one famous girl among many, maybe she’ll start acting with a bit more humility and grace.
Can Miley Cyrus now apologize for Miley Cyrus?
Spoiled, clueless, untalented trailer-trash. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. (That would be “don’t fall” in Hick-ese, for the Cyrus fambly)
Her parents need to apologize for raising and unleashing such an irresponsible, uneducated, sleutty, self-centered idiot on kids that actually purchase Miley’s crap. Shameful!
Ugh, she just makes it worse.
No, but you two can apologize for stretching this story past the point of credulity. In a world where people didn’t monitor and over-analyze everything everybody else said or did, this would have been the non-incident it should have remained.
Ha Ha – ‘Hick-ese’. love it!
I despite this girl, but I think people were overreacting. But I’m always happy to see her in trouble.
She’s doing the “slanty-eyesd” thing in a picture. Inexcusable for whatever reason that whole bunch of yahoos can come up with. Welcome to the 21st century where “we don’t do that kinda thang no mo'”
The little twit is selling her crap and supposedly a “role model” – you know, the thing that comes with the fame & fortune- and is too dumb to keep herself in check? THINK WITH THE BIG HEAD IF Y’CAN MILEY!
PS – Glad to see you’re montoring and analyzing the overmonitoring and over analyzing, vdantev!
😉
**Note: If Miley were in school and had done this, she’d be expelled. Why excuse it anywhere else? Her equally dumbass fans will think they can get away with that, the “N” word or any other kind of racist garbage just because Miley did it. “Sahry to the Oree-en’ls, giggle” don’t cut it in the real world when people does these thangs, vdantev.
UGH another rosie o’donnell
So slanty eyed is bigoted but “trailer trash” and “hickese” is perfectly fine.
Maybe this little butt-head can stop taking pictures of her stupid get togethers cus they always end up online showing how stupid she is. You think she would have learned by now?
I have to say that it makes me sad that many commentators didn’t take that to be offensive.
Perhaps when you’ve experienced racism in its many forms, you will view it as such.
As for me, I’ve been called a chink on the street.
And so yea, that picture’s offensive and she needs to give a more sincere apology.
Yes, 16 year olds do dumb things, but at 16, you know right and wrong. If you can get tried as an adult (many 16 y/o do) and the Court rules that you have the capability of knowing right and wrong, then heck, you should know that that’s CLEARLY racist. Especially given the scandal awhile back with the Spanish Olympic Soccer team. (Was it soccer?…LOL. Some spanish olympics team.)
Im so sick of hearing about this twat
I AM ABOUT SICK OF HER LIL A**!! ALWAYS DOING SOMTHING THEM HAVING TO APOLOGIZE FOR IT……SHE NEEDS A DARN WHIPPIN’….
“Silly, Asians. I was making fun of squinty eyes (which are totes goofy and not at all a universal insult) but not YOUR squinty eyes, duh!”
Like Kaiser said, if she just took responsibility for making a mistake and apologized, maybe even learned from it, it’d have been fine, but she just dug herself into a deeper hole. I even gave her the benefit of the doubt and expected her to do the right thing. If third-graders knew the chink-eye enough to bully me as a kid, one would assume a kid her age would, too. It just really guts me that she’s a crap role model and that I have loads of little nieces and nephews and cousins who worship her.
Uh. She is what… 16 ??
Give the fkn girl a break! Nobody is perfect at 16… And whether she is famous or not, it is really inappropriate for an adult to call a 16 year old girl THAT YOU DON’T EVEN PERSONALLY KNOW a twat, trailer-trash, talentless etc. And you people wonder why all the young starlets are on train-wrecks.. Half the world is bullying them and stalking them and everyone thinks its justified cos they are getting paid heaps! Well most people cannot live that way and NOT have emotional problems at some point.
I don’t understand the unadulterated vitriol for this girl. I haven’t been following her “news”, so maybe I’m missing something but I’m completely indifferent to her teenage nonsense because it’s just that: teenage nonsense.
You all probably did a lot of stupid crap when you were teens and didn’t want to apologize for them because you didn’t think it was wrong. I think she’s done the right thing here basically telling people to stop overreacting.
Miley Cyrus is not a role model. She isn’t paid to be a role model. She’s paid to “sing”(horribly) and “act” (horribly) and sell products with her face and voice.
If people make her out to be one, and end up disappointed, that is their fault. If a mother cannot teach her child not to look up to some dopey popstar with tiny baby teeth and mountains of fake hair, then that is the mother’s fault.
Using the “chinky eyes” thing to bully is different than what she and her friends are doing here.
Parents should be the ones raising their children, not other children. I’m sorry, but anyone who is surprised or disappointed by this needs to get a life.
She said ‘goofy faces’
To me that reads that people who naturally look like that, are goofy looking.
Role model argument aside, at 16, you do know better.
And she’s been in the spotlight her whole life, so she also knows this shit gets out.
GOOFY. Gawd I could slap that girl.
If she wants to stop disappointing her fans, maybe she should learn how to keep her personal (slutty) photos from her myspace and everything to herself. Did she forget about those? You remember…the ones where she ripped down her shirt so you could see her bra? How old was she? 13?
Hmmm….
what makes her think she is a star of the universe when i have not seen any of her movies or album?…give me a break!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah, one non-excuse for Asian people, and not a single word for Donkeys.
When I was 16, I was in a foreign country trying to learn its language and its culture (asking the hosting family where was the joke in “She’s gone from suck to blow” never got a clear answer, though).
Not hanging around with no-brain models making so-called goofy faces.
A damn shame
And sorry about the Cyrus Fambly thing…I should’ve said KLAN.
Anybody who condones or excuses this pinhead and her retard friends as “just doing silly kid stuff” needs to give your head a shake. The fact that UndressMe Barbie is famous and pulling crap is inexcusable. Don’t they have people training her in social etiquette? Obviously Mom and Dad being on the gravy train means they don’t have to parent right. Ths is right up there with Prince Harry wearing swaztikas.
Big deal. Who hasn’t done this at least once? Everyone is so hung up on this correctness stuff when it comes to races. I called a person from Turkey a “Turk” and was asked if I was prejudiced. It’s gotten totally ridiculous.
If she used the “N” word, she would have to apologize. But not for Asians.
I don’t like Miley as a “role model” for young girls, and I think her parents are pretty irresponsible, but I do recognize that she’s just a teenage girl and she’s probably a lot better behaved than I was, or any of you were, at that age. So lay off. Plus, isn’t that an Asian guy she’s sitting next to?
Yeah she’s 16, she’s young and stupid… well I know plenty of stupid adults too.
“In NO way was I making fun of any ethnicity!”
That’s a total lie. What a skunt.
As someone who isn’t too far past 16– Hell’s bells, neither I or anyone I knew did or would have done the “slant eyes” thing! “She’s 16, give her a break” really doesn’t cut it. If you’re 16, and *especially* if you’ve been in an adult business as Miley Cyrus has been for so long, YOU KNOW BETTER. A 4-year-old may not understand that just isn’t something you do, but a 4-year-old doesn’t understand a lot. That is why you do not allow 4-year-old to drive, sign a contract, be legally employed, choose to drop out of school, or get married– but a 16 year old can.
Miley Cyrus is just a flaming idiot Even *if* she was a raging Klansman (I don’t believe she is, just dumber than a sack of hammers), she at east knows she’s in the public eye and that doing anything that can be construed as racist, by any group, will be jumped on. Therefore: don’t gleefully pose in front of a camera, next to an Asian, making slant-eyes. It doesn’t matter how “innocent” it may be, it’s a bad f*cking idea.
Lastly (promise!), I have to agree with the “why is hillbilly and trailer trash still acceptable” comments. Calling someone a “hillbilly” (as I myself have been called) might not rank up with Chink or the N-Word, but it’s still pretty damn offensive. A white person doesn’t choose to be born poor as much as a black person doesn’t choose to be born black.
That asian guy is probably so stupid and clueless that he doesn’t know that they’re laughing at him and not with him.
And Je-e-e-e-sus! When is this stupid little girl going to learn to stop taking pictures of her own stupidity? She’s got no one to blame but herself, she’s sixteen not six and should know better.
Good for you Miley, defend yourself. It is so sick that nowadays people impose their grammar and behavioral code on somebody else. Getting offended because somebody took a picture like that? Maybe Miley was not polited in doing it, but whoever gets offended needs a therapist. And no, I don’t like her, but I’m glad she didn’t give in and take responsibility for somebody else’s feelings!
Except for Miley’s fellow rednecks who think this is right up there with hamhocks and marrying your brother, y’all got a good point.
She’s 16.
Have a good look at everybody else.
The glass of wine is might interesting.Oh, wait, I’m sure it’s just “goofy koolade”. Never seen it that red before though….
To me the poor Asian guy looks like a deer in the headlights, like “Just get me outta here.” Speaking of the Asian guy, anybody know if he’s still alive or hanging from a tree in the Cyrus trailerpark?
Anybody thinking there’s more than just playing stupid is going on here?
Who hasn’t done this at least once?
Uh. Me. And I’ll say that anyone who’d do that around me, wouldn’t be a friend of mine.
@Rosanna.
Behavioral Code?
It’s not about a code, this is completely disrespectful and all the people supporting this clearly shows to me that there is still rampant ignorance in this world. It’s the justifying these behaviors that leads to more extreme forms of racism.
All I have to say is, if my little sister or her friends start running around doing slanty eyes, little Miss Cyrus better hopes she never runs into me in Hollywood. 🙂
This girl and her friends look really ugly in the picture. I hope her career is over soon.
I thought that monitoring and over-analyzing celebrity behaviour was the whole point of this site.
If you people want to keep tabs on how free Americans express themselves, you should apply for jobs at the KGB. They are very good at keeping tabs on what people say.
Be the good Voltarians all Americans should be, shrug your shoulders, score one for FREEDOM, and let it go. It won’t kill you.
“If she used the “N” word, she would have to apologize. But not for Asians.”
@Allison: Are you saying that offending Asian’s Doesn’t Matter??! Your Statement would be racist to Asian’s if i interperated(mind my spelling) as it is. I hope that it wasn’t typed correctly.
I don’t want to flame but were all HUMANS. We All LIVE on this Earth and we eat and sleep like everyone eles.
and as for Miley: If ur under the spotlight at a young age you likely to be silly, spoilled and up your self. a Good example of this is Britney Spears. Lindsay Lohan. So far Justin Timberlake hasn’t done many bad things as i know. correct me if im wrong xD
This is disgusting. Sitting next to an Asian doesn’t make it any less wrong and and even if she was paid to be an actress and singer, she and Disney MUST have known that she would end up a role model to young children. That is how she is able to sell her merchandise. And this isn’t the first time a photo scandal has leaked out. First the Vanity Fair shoot, then the 3 (yes 3) batches of racy pics, now this. You would think she would learn.
I’m just surprised she stopped at Chinese.. or is that Japanese? The point is she kept her clothes on so thats a step forward for her.
One can really, really exaggerate political correctness. If their Asian friend didn’t mind (maybe because he usually feels respected by them and can take a joke) why would the rest of the world make such a big deal out of it? Why get the Simpsons to make fun of everything including religions and races, but not a couple of youngsters who obviously are not racist enough not to have Asian friends? Geeeeeez…
Okay, maybe I’m just way off-base here, but I don’t think so.
This is SO not a big deal. She’s sitting there WITH an Asian friend. We make harmless, non-disgusting racial jokes all the time with our racially diverse circle of friends. Our black friends tell black jokes, and we ALL laugh. Our Hispanic friends make Hispanic jokes, and we ALL laugh. We have Korean friends who make jokes about our Chinese friends, and vice versa…and we ALL laugh.
Because it’s FUNNY.
People need to seriously lighten the eff up. Life is too short to spend so much time pissed off about NOTHING.
Agree with Aspen and a few others. As kids we’ve always stretched our faces in different ways to see what it would do and to make “goofy” faces. I myself have done this and it wasn’t to make fun of Asian people, it was to see what my face looked like and to see how my eyes could see through the narrowed port hole.
C’mon… please…. If she were stretching her mouth up into a joker like smile, would all of you jump on her and accuse her of insulting clowns and Heath Ledger? Give it up – listen to Dante and Aspen for a change. Drop the hysteria over this – it’s a non issue.
It’s not a non-issue if it hurt somebody. People who aren’t bothered by it are not the ones who get to say it’s “nothing”. Of course it’s nothing to you, you don’t care because it didn’t hurt YOUR feelings.
Exactly, CB Rawks.
Those commenters saying “get over it”: do you not realize that you’re trying to silence those who disagree with your personal views? Isn’t that contrary to “free speech”?
This photo is silly. But it has become a lightning rod for discussion, and in a free and democratic society, isn’t discussion and debate a good thing?
wow.
really, you just had to give THAT sh-tload of an apology, miley!?
and yes, i agree, 16 y.o. people make mistakes. (i.e. her racy photos)…
but miley has made one too many.
she’s just being a brat right here.
just leave it at:
sorry.
😡
I’m sorry, but I think people who take offense where none is meant and who wear their “feelings” on their sleeves…are going to have a hard row to hoe their entire lives.
I feel sorry for them…but I don’t cater to them.
Like I said, “Life is too short.”
Awww… they were just making their friend [second from left] feel at home.
Seriously. It isn’t recist. It’s just teenagers being that…. teenagers.
Miley has gone too far and Disney should do something about this trouble
maker. I think they should find someone to replace her because she is
such a bad role model. I think that Disney and her parents are very responsible for her misbehavings. They just let her do whatever she wants and make her feel like a goddess. Guess what? Someday not too far away,she’ll be forgotten anyway like it happens to all these child stars.
I think this whole thing is stupid. Media looks for anything to make a huge deal about more so now than ever. Politically correct is looked at way to often and people are way to sensitive. She did not mean anything by this just like im sure friends make fun of her as being white and im sure she laughs about it because its amongst friends. People need to get a life instead of looking at every little thing that somebody does.
I bet that those of you who are saying “get over with it! She’s just being funny!” aren’t Asians. Some people take that offensive. Start seeing things from other people’s POV. Or wait, you guys are probably too young for that.
“Making goofy faces”? Some Asian people do really have small eyes and I guess they just look “goofy.” Okay, Asian eyes are goofy. Caucasian eyes are normal. Okay. I got it.
It’s simply about being respectful to all.
And people with feelings certainly don’t need your questionable pity, Aspen. (I like how you said “feelings” as though you’ve never had one of your own.)
I think if a behaviour is rude and could offend someone, I will not do that behaviour.
And why WOULD I do it? Should I be trampling through life, not giving a shit who I hurt?
Yeah, that sounds an awful way to live, actually. No thanks, you can keep it.
Mirth among friends at a party does not qualify as “trampling through life, not giving a shit who they hurt.”
I’m actually a very kind and accommodating person whenever I can be. I just happen to be an honest person, as well. I don’t lie to make people feel good…especially not on internet opinion groups. If you were my friend and you asked me if your pants made your ass look big, I might make an exception and pull out a fib. Otherwise…I give it straight, and this is my opinion of such matters.
In cases such as this, my response would be to pull the girl aside and tell her she was insensitive. No more than that
It was insensitive. It wasn’t bigoted or hateful or even mean. It was only insensitive.
People who make it more than that…like you…are being melodramatic and just ridiculously self-centered.
She didn’t do it to piss you off or trample on your feelings. She did it, along with her friends, as a joke. It was a joke they all got and were a part of. No one…not one single person…was hurt by this. Being angry over it or getting your feelings all in a wad over it is stupid.
“Offense” and “discomfort” and “feelings” (in quotes because it’s grammatically correct in this sentence…not because I don’t have feelings /eyeroll) are used as weapons by immature people with too little to do and nothing more substantive to call attention to themselves by.
THAT was my point.
Save your offense and indignation for ACTUAL racists. They still exist in this country, and it would be easier to deal with them if official minority representative groups (like the one making the demands that she apologize) would stop going apoplectic over a photograph of a group of teens being idiots.
As for my way of living being awful…to each his own. I prefer not living in a swirl of drama and manufactured indignation all the time. It’s easy to be offended. It’s much more pleasant, however, to be realistic and tolerant.
I’d rather look asian and be cute than look like some frog faced little witch. Rippit Rippit
Wow!
First Miley is very ugly!
Second her voice is very ugly!
Third!!!
Who does she think she is making fun of asains? Is there something wrong with being asain?
Excuse us for not all having a witch chin and frog throat! I agree she is pure trash and untalented! And very unattractive!
Pity Britney Spears actually has some sort of talent. Miley … zero.
Also, although this picture has some pretty obvious racial undertones, I think the more pressing matter is the fact that she looks completely wasted. How old was she again? Oh yeah, 16. Starting to drink a little early now, huh.
Jesus Asians. This is a free country.
She didn’t whip an asian.
I’m an inbred hillbilly on meth. We ain’t got no learnin’, y’all. It’s all in good fun, y’all!