BlazeTV Host Takes Home Oscar For Best Achievement In Twitter Bigotry
Jon Miller can't stand what "these people" are doing to his racist country.
I just heard the Academy Awards were last night. There wasn't any halftime show-related controversy, but apparently some people -- specifically bigots -- were upset that the South Korean film, Parasite , won Best Picture. Reportedly, this foreign-language film isn't even in English. but it also won best original screenplay not featuring an Avenger. Blaze TV host Jon Miller considered this an attack on the American way.
@MillerStream Hey Jon, if you don’t like Koreans: 개 새 끼 꺼 저 라
— Katie Phang (@Katie Phang) 1581302445.0
Parasite director Bong Joon-ho is Korean, so it's not a mystery why he spoke his native language. Koreans speaking Korean happens every day. It's not connected to the "destruction of America," which was Donald Trump's election. The part of Joon-ho's acceptance speech that he spoke in English was roughly equivalent to Prince's entire 1985 Oscar speech. I thought he was more than respectful of his audience.
Miller is cranky that Parasite 's screenplay received an Oscar over the all-American Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and 1917 , which is a British film. He later "clarified" that when he blamed "these people" for ruining the nation, he didn't mean Korean butthe Jews in Hollywood , for honoring a movie that "stokes flames of class warfare." He also thought the other two films were more deserving. Who's gonna tell him he's not a member of the Academy? That's who the winners thank first in their speeches. It's one of many reasons why Brad Pitt didn't mention Jon Miller when accepting his Oscar last night.
The "class warfare" complaint on its face seems a reasonable objection from your typical, close-minded conservative. However, Miller also tweeted that Joaquin Phoenix deserved his Oscar for Joker , which is overtly about class warfare. It's hardly possible that Miller missed that. The film's themes are about as subtle as Phoenix's makeup.
Some of Miller's buddies tried to help clean up his mess and explain why Miller, who tries to communicate for a living, expressed himself so badly.
It's clear @MillerStream didn't mean a racial reference with this imprecisely-worded Tweet. Writers have editors fo… https: //t.co/qRSvtUmjDg
— Mike Cernovich (@Mike Cernovich) 1581312780.0
This is perhaps an example of "physician heal thyself" because I don't know what the hell Mike Cernovich means here. [ Dok Zoom jumps in: It's Mike Cernovich, so maybe he thinks it's still 1992 and black people in Los Angeles are burning down Korean grocery stores. ] Miller's tweet triggered a pretty epic ratio, so it's almost impossible to follow up on everyone who dragged him. However, I think very few of them are silent on Asian-American hate crime victims. I know I'm vocally anti-hate crime.
I've also worked professionally as both a writer and an editor, and it's absolutely not "clear" that Miller didn't mean Koreans when he wrote "these people." He never mentions Hollywood as an industry. The subject of almost every sentence in the tweet is Joon-ho. The word directly following "Korean" are "these people." Miller should deactivate his account -- not solely because of this offensive tweet -- but just on general principle.
Joon-ho's acceptance speech for best director was a master class in, well, class. He praised his fellow nominees, almost bringing Martin Scorsese to tears when Joon-ho cited him as an inspiration. He also took the time to thank Quentin Tarantino for supporting his work and helping raise his exposure in the US. Neither Joon-ho nor those who honor him are the "destruction of America." Joon-ho represents what makes America great if we reject mindless jingoism and cultural resentment.
Follow Stephen Robinson on Twitter.
Wonkette is independent and fully funded by readers like you. Click below to tip us!
So, the Rightwingers want everyone to have freedom of speech; as long as they're only speaking English?
Sounds like they don't understand how free speech works. If I'm going to advocate that, it's got to include the right to speak in whatever language you want to speak in. Otherwise, you're being oppressive.
I wish I were. It's big, green, and very popular.