Racist, Ridiculous: Snapchat’s New Filter Enrages Asian Community

Snapchat can’t use symbols that homogenise communities and help to perpetuate an ignorant attitude towards them.

The Gook and a Snapchat user (Photo Courtesy: Twitter/Tequilafunrise)

Snapchat is situated in the narrow realm between fantasy and reality, and it allows one to assume various identities via filters, while more-or-less retaining their own broader facial and physical features.

Apart from its collective of beauty enhancing, lip plumping and skin sharpening filters, it has an array of goofy, almost cute ones which really are just for fun.

However, Snapchat often forgets the driving stereotypes behind certain filters, and recently created another quite racist one targeting the Asian community.

The Gook is a pictorial representation of the Asian stereotype that was popularised by the US media and military during the Korean and Vietnam war. It refers to the ‘invisible’ yet strong enemy, which can endure punishment and strife.

This image became how people around the world began viewing the quintessential Asian. Sharply slanted eyes, buckteeth, a straw hat and rounded cheeks are the defining features of this stereotype.

So, when Snapchat released their anime filter that was clearly modelled after this piece of World War II propaganda, the callous racism was evident and they were slammed for ‘yellow facing’ or making anybody who wasn’t from the East, look like they are.

Many people believe that this filter looked nothing like anime characters. The sharp features, clear animation and coloured hair was visibly invisible and Snapchat made a reckless mistake.

Many Hollywood stars have received tremendous flak for being cast as Asian characters in films, as can be seen with Matt Damon when he finished ‘The Great Wall’.

Snapchat said the filter was expired and wouldn’t be put back into circulation and also reacted to the controversy by saying that filters were meant for fun, and never to offend.

Once Bitten, Still Not Shy?

Snapchat has been slammed before for its racially and socially insensitive filters. It also created one of Bob Marley’s face on a day to celebrate marijuana.

Not only was the company accused of enabling ‘black facing’, where all people including white people could pose to be black, but it also reduced Marley’s art and music to his stoner identity.

Snapchat needs to be reminded of the lines it cannot cross. It is justified to create a filter that can be a set of funny features, or accessorise one’s self impersonally.

But Snapchat shouldn’t use symbols that have been used to homogenise and identify collective communities, that not only hurt the personal sensibilities of people from those communities, but help to build an ignorant and misinformed attitude towards them.

(Source: The Guardian, Yellow-Face.com)