Entertainment
5 of the Most Offensive Minority Character Stereotypes Ever to Disgrace the Big Screen
Long Duk Dong is considered one of the most racist portrayals of a minority movie character of all time. He speaks sentences in stilted English and his appearances are accompanied by a gong — he embodies a host of Asian sterotypes. It's easy to be shocked by offensive, stereotypical characters from over 30 years ago, but it didn't start with Long Duk Dong, and it didn't end with him, either...
Long Duk Dong, 'Sixteen Candles'
Long Duk Dong is considered one of the most racist portrayals of a minority movie character of all time. He speaks sentences in stilted English and his appearances are accompanied by a gong — he embodies a host of Asian sterotypes. It's easy to be shocked by offensive, stereotypical characters from over 30 years ago, but it didn't start with Long Duk Dong, and it didn't end with him, either...
I.Y. Yunioshi, 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'
Besides being the favorite movie of Starbucks-loving, yoga pants wearing girls across the country, Breakfast at Tiffany's is also kind of racist. Mickey Rooney, notable white guy, played a squinty, angry little stereotype of a character named I.Y. Yunioshi, doubling down on the offensiveness. If they called his performance "broadly ethnic" in the 1961 New York Times review, you know it's pretty racist.
Charlene Morton, 'Bringing Down the House'
Lest you think that the offensive stereotypes had ceased by the 2000's, Bringing Down the House was there to prove you wrong. In it, Queen Latifah is reduced to playing the "sassy black woman" character who's also a former convict. The movie basically portrays what your racist grandpa thinks black people are like.
John Coffey, 'The Green Mile'
The Green Mile showed the other end of the spectrum of stereotypes by playing John Coffey as a benevolent, harmless character who helps white people. Spike Lee famously called out the character as a "magic Negro," a character who is regarded as a positive "exception" yet is still seen as subordinate to white characters.
Rob Schneider
Rob Schneider's entire career is partially based on being kind of racist. Although he's a quarter Filipino, Schneider has played both Middle Eastern (Click, Grandma's Boy, You Don't Mess With the Zohan) and Asian (8 Crazy Nights, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry) characters. And every single time, the characters are just a collection of badly cobbled-together stereotypes... even The Hot Chick.
