I thought we were past the point of making fun of Asian/Americans for having accents in mainstream media, but I guess not — somebody out there thinks it’s funny, and that one lonely person is Bob Oschack, a comedian and “investigative reporter” for Fox Sports, who conducted the entirely racist, supposedly humorous TV short titled Oschack visits USC that recently aired on Fox Sports.
In the short, Oschack interviews University of Southern California students under the premise of asking them how they feel about University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Utah being inducted in the Pacific-10 football conference, of which USC is a member. “Let’s give the conference’s two newest members a good, old-fashioned all-American welcome!” he says — the not-at-all humorous setup is that Oschack selectively chooses East Asian students who are not native English speakers to give this welcome. The punchline: It turns out that by “All-American” Oschack means “Hey, look at all of these Asians who can’t speak English in America! Isn’t it funny?”
Oschack, for instance, singles out some students and plays the “What? I can’t understand you” game for laughs — he mishears certain words the English as a second language (ESL) students say, mistaking words like “ask” and “better” for “ass” and “Batman,” respectively. He corrects and questions the way students use English words like the word “fighting” — “Colorado and Utah and fighting … Fighting means to play better,” one student says, which Oschack responds with an overtly confused face and asks incredulously, “What’s that, fighting? … Do you like to fight?” He puts students on the spot to say scripted phrases, which result in grammatical slip-ups, only to correct them condescendingly: “Welcome to Colorado and Utah!” one student enthusiastically says, only to include Oschack responding, “No, you’re saying welcome TO Colorado and Utah. We’re in Los Angeles.”
The short even includes a section at the end where Oshack says, “Colorado and Utah, this is for you!” and trumpets begin playing dramatic fanfare over the spectacle of ESL students saying, in often thick accents, phrases like “Welcome Colorado and Utah to the top twelve!” — the spectacle here is not so much the enthusiasm these students have for USC’s football team but their odd pronunciation. What year is this? The ‘80s want their stereotypes back.
I’m not going to give Oschack the benefit of the doubt here. If he were seriously interviewing students about the Pac-12 and wanted an honest portrayal of USC and its student body, the video would have included a larger demographic than just East Asian ESL students who don’t follow American football, which puts the interviewed students in a position of ignorance by default. I’m sure that if Oschack wanted to interview a random sampling of students at diverse school like USC, he would have likely bumped into a native English speaker, or a student who loves USC sports — the video has selected clips that refuse to portray this, however. The short’s editing is also very telling — the video editor would have likely not included the copious amounts of corrections and uncomfortable responses Oschack says to the students if the aim were to not humiliate these unknowing students.
This isn’t funny. It never was funny. And the reason behind this? The other-ing of Asian/Americans through appearance, English-speaking ability and accent-related condescension by a privileged majority has been going on for years. Oschack finds irony (and lowbrow humor) in Asian ESL students delivering an “American” greeting from USC — because they don’t know anything about American football, don’t speak English “correctly” and have accents that are supposedly impenetrable to the average white guy (i.e. Oschack). Using this kind of humor to humiliate these Asian students, Oschack is really saying that modern American-ness is singularly comprised of speaking English, being white, having a Midwestern accent and knowing football inside and out. Seriously? It’s 2011. This Oschack guy is living in a John Hughes movie — Long Duk Dong be damned.
I was pleasantly surprised, however, with the general response to Oschack Visits USC — so far a few sports websites have blogged about the video, calling it overtly racist and not at all humorous, a response that’s good to see from the sports community. Total Pro Sports commented, “This isn’t even funny … I guess this is pretty much what many of us have come to expect from Fox these days,” and The 110 Report commented that the video is “really unbelievable. [If] they’re going to interview people not interested in football, why make it a racial profiling crusade? It’s uncalled for, unfunny and disrespectful to not only the foreign students at USC, but throughout our country.”
Because the general response was so overwhelmingly negative, Fox Sports immediately withdrew the video from official sources including the Fox website and Hulu before it could go viral. Deadspin followed up on the story by contacting Lou D’Ermillo, the Fox Sports head of media relations. D’Ermillo then released an official apology through Deadspin not long after:
“We sincerely apologize to President [C. L. Max] Nikias and the entire USC community for the production and posting of the video. The context was clearly inappropriate and the video was removed as soon as we became aware of it. We will review our editorial process to determine where the breakdown occurred, and we will take steps to ensure something like this never happens again.”
While I’m glad that Fox released an apology over this huge mess, I still wonder about Oschack — so far there’s no news about his employment with Fox Sports, but I’d like to report that Oschack’s charismatic on-screen personality has primarily been put to use in an acting role in the almost completely unknown 2001 movie Sharkman, starring Oschack as “Tim the Cartoonist.” On the glass-half-full side of Oschack Visits USC: I guess the cartoonist role in that unknown man-shark movie isn’t the lowest point of his career anymore.
College X: Oschack visits USC by FOX_Sports_Interactive
This makes me absolutely livid. I don’t have anything constructive to say, since this puts me in a pretty destructive mood. Fuck it.
boo, bob, boo.
I’m not Asian, but that guy seemed like a condescending jackass.
Seriously, what was the point…?
Really, Oschack, really????
UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH.
can someone send this guy to a country that doesnt speak english and film him trying to communicate plz? what an asshat.
I say we force him to study an Asian language for two years. Then we put him in a room with a bunch of native speakers (maybe some of the kids from this clip, depending on the language), who interview him and ruthlessly mock his shitty grammar and pronunciation. What an asshat.
I haven’t watched the clip and I don’t plan to, but I feel bad for those students. Even after studying Russian for years, a street vendor humiliated me so badly that I didn’t leave my apartment for two days. I thought I would be used to it by then, and that I’d be confident enough in my proficiency to blow it off, but those comments were really damaging. And I wasn’t even being filmed.
i know exactly how you feel but with french.
I SECOND THIS SUGGESTION.
Thirded! French, man. Mon Dieu.
Russians are giant assholes to people that don’t have perfect Russian accents. I know of Muscovites mocking Ukrainians that are complete Russophones but have softer accents because of the regional dialect. Super, super arrogant.
Ugh, yes! A lot of the people I worked with over there were helpful and instructive about the language, but then there were the other people, who told me that I “used prefixes like a Ukrainian” in the most insulting fashion imaginable. WTF, really?
the only time someone looked silly giving the welcome speech was monsieur bob when his voice cracked at the end.
absolutely disgusting
…I happen to like the Asian usage of “fighting” and have now started incorporating it into my daily speech, thank you very much, Mr. Asshat.
>_< BWELK!!
Ew. I have an urge to smack him on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper like a puppy. Not okay, Bob you asshat.
What the fuck? Seriously? What an asshat – I can’t even type, I’m SO angry right now.
… what. the fuck.
Nothing about this video is funny. Fox News is so offensive to so many groups I can’t believe they are still a part of the mainstream media. It’s one thing to be a racist, it’s another thing to be so deep in denial that you think everyone else will find your racism entertaining and/or acceptable. Fuck off
What a fucking douche!
He reminds me of my teacher in College, she humiliated in class when I mispronounced “innovative”. Fucking teacher.
He couldn’t get into USC
this is the kind of thing i assume is happening over at fox news all the time. i mean i’m surprised they apologized (kinda)
Not watching the video because I don’t need to lower my already low expectations of humanity. But I’m already disgusted. Eff you, Oschack.
absolutely disgraceful and totally racist.
And I wonder how many additional languages does this doucher speak!??! I’m guessing zero.
And while we’re condemning this, can we al send a BIG postcard to other aspects of the Trad-media to PLEASE stop treating Fox “News”, whether sports or otherwise, as being anything more that the bastion of white, Christian, hetero-sexist privilege that they are?
“The context was clearly inappropriate and the video was removed as soon as we became aware of it.”
Really?
They either didn’t know that the context was inappropriate or the video existed, which somehow I don’t believe (that guy couldn’t have been smart enough to do it all by himself. come on!). The breakdown they called it. How stupid do they think we are.
Not only they should be appoliging to the community but also for the ignorance and lack of cultural appreciation that pervades their company.
Moments like these make me even more proud to be Canadian.
He will reap what he sows. One day it will come back to him.
Notice that Fox Sports head of media relations Lou D’Ermilio DID NOT apologize to the Asian and Asian American communities.
Great, well-written article and thank you so much for exposing this racist, fraud. Also, for picking up some of the more subtle teasing this jackass did.
I hope I never see him or hear from him again.
And as the poster above noted, Fox Sport owes an apology to Asians for this piece of garbage.
I’m kind of wondering why dailymotion is still carrying it. I think these guys should take it down too. Only inflames others. I think we should focus our attention on getting this guy, and his producers out of Fox and into the unemployment line. Well written article. Makes me mad, embarrassed and sad that Fox still thinks this is permissible–in spite of what their PR spin guy said (he had to say that once they were outed).
Thanks for writing the story.
I’m glad it’s still up on Dailymotion, it’s just them (Fox) digging their own grave.
Oschack is a Nutschack.
Don’t you have to be funny to be a comedian?