The fallout from Day Above Ground’s “Asian Girlz” controversy is starting to hit the band in the pocket book, reports NBC Bay Area.
The House of Blues has announced it’s cancelled the group’s August 10th show in Los Angeles following a social media storm.
The song and music video which were released earlier this week use explicit language and racy video to exoticize Asian women and treat them like fetishes. It’s been widely panned as blatantly sexist and racist.
People went to the House of Blue’s Facebook page and started a change.org petition demanding the show get dropped.
The House of Blues complied.
Meanwhile, the Asian American model who starred in the video has taken to twitter to apologize.
Levy Tran of San Jose tweeted:
“I sincerely apologize to all who feel that I set Asian women back 50 yrs. I know I lost respect from a lot of ppl. It wasn’t my intention.”
Later she called members of Day Above Ground “sweet boys and not at all racist.”
But the apology hasn’t stopped the growing fire storm.
Asian American advocates say such videos as “Asian Girlz” only encourage the objectification of Asian women.
“People have groped them and it’s okay, because you’re an Asian women, we’ve been told this stuff,” said Rabiah Khalid, the advocacy manager for the Asian Americans for Community Involvement in Silicon Valley.
But the band so far isn’t getting it and admits its having trouble seeing what all the fuss is about.
“It comes from a good place. I’m sure it’s hard for a lot of people to believe that, but we’ve all had close relationships with the Asian community, Asian people,” said Joe Anselm, the band’s lead singer. “There’s guys in the band with Asian women. It’s just, it’s hard to believe we’re getting this kind of backlash.”
It’s so comforting to hear some of their best friends are Asian. Kind of warms your heart, doesn’t it.
RE: Model in Asian Girlz video defends role: Ridiculous –/ self hating Asian women and closet white boy racists . Being with Asian woman doesn’t make you immune from being a racist
RE: House of Blues Cancels Bands Show: Exactly, Ric. This is the same old thinly veiled anti-Asian racism perpetrated by full-on racists all day long in AmeriKKKa. Sadly, it is often inflicted by Asian female sellouts like Levy Tran