Fox News’ Jesse Watters is drawing widespread condemnation for a segment on The O’Reilly Factor in which he visited New York’s Chinatown neighborhood to, according to Fox host Bill O’Reilly, “sample political opinion.” Since the episode aired, media figures have admonished Watters and O’Reilly for the “disgusting” and “anti-Asian” segment.
During the October 3 edition of Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor, O’Reilly aired the “Chinatown edition” of “Watters’ World,” in which Watters interviewed several bystanders in New York’s Chinatown, asking questions such as, “Am I supposed to bow to say hello?" “Tell me what’s not made in China?” and “Do you know karate?” Watters also played the song “Kung Fu Fighting” in the background and included clips of him doing karate. But, as Vox puts it, “What Watters was really doing was making fun of the people he encountered with the broadest, dumbest Asian stereotypes imaginable — making it clear they were there as props for him and his viewers for what he clearly considered a hilarious joke, rather than to actually give their opinions.”
The segment was rebuked by numerous journalists on Twitter:
How much trolling, anti-Asian racism can you pack into one news segment? More than I ever thought possible: https://t.co/tm0a1ezEky
— Suzy Khimm (@SuzyKhimm) October 5, 2016
It’s 2016. Here is a person from Fox News going to Chinatown and asking people if they know karate. https://t.co/YAC8kiM2up
— Andrew Keh (@andrewkeh) October 5, 2016
This might be the most offensive television segment I've ever seen https://t.co/GH8LdHObtL
— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) October 5, 2016
This is one of the most blatantly racist things I have ever seen. How can anyone at @FoxNews defend this? It's nuts https://t.co/djbpRvNDoE
— Farhad Manjoo (@fmanjoo) October 5, 2016
This is beyond words offensive and disgraceful. What year are we in?Seriously?? https://t.co/Nr7iuBwR8W
— MJ Lee (@mj_lee) October 5, 2016
This O’Reilly factor segment making fun of Asian-Americans is unreal. It’s 2016 https://t.co/prmRsP0Zt3
— Blake Hounshell (@blakehounshell) October 5, 2016
This Jesse Watters segment making fun of Asian people is disgusting. He’s awful. (via @SuzyKhimm) https://t.co/j1eoPphpcp
— Elise Foley (@elisefoley) October 5, 2016
even by Fox and O'Reilly's standards, this is incredibly racist. https://t.co/mOGb16uNmI (via @SuzyKhimm)
— Bae TK Talese (@elongreen) October 5, 2016
Wow, newsreels from the 1950s had some offensive caricatures. https://t.co/3GINAF2686 via @elisefoley
— Philip Bump (@pbump) October 5, 2016
Big advantage Democrats have is people like Bill O'Reilly enjoy being racist more than they like winning elections https://t.co/6TFX0mGLKt
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) October 5, 2016
If you're Asian and you work at Fox, now would be a good time to quit: https://t.co/rDugXlNrnW
— Ryan Mac (@RMac18) October 5, 2016
This is wrong on multiple lvls but as a journalist you don't go to civilians and then mock them for their responses https://t.co/hzMrOyCDd6
— Nick Riccardi (@NickRiccardi) October 5, 2016
Nice to see people noticing this insane segment on Asian voters. Come for sterotypes, stay for implied dual loyalty https://t.co/VgGBSeJZ5M
— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) October 5, 2016
Watters’ racist segment is not the first time The O’Reilly Factor has stereotyped Asian-American or Asian people. O’Reilly himself once stated, “Asian-Americans have succeeded in the U.S.A. better than any other minority group. ... I’m saying there’s no white privilege; there must be Asian privilege because the Asians are at the top of the chart.” O’Reilly also asserted that “Asian people are not liberal, you know, by nature. They're usually more industrious and hard-working,” which prompted a demand for an apology from then-Rep. Collen Hanabusa (D-HI), who said O’Reilly’s comments “thoughtlessly insult 1.3 million people with one sweeping misstatement."