Mark Wahlberg Racist Cutout

Mark Wahlberg Racist Cutout

Mark Wahlberg, one of the most well-known American movie stars, is a racist. In 1986, he harassed a group of African and Asian American teenagers. In 1988, he attacked two Vietnamese Americans, including Johnny Trinh, an army veteran[1]. Wahlberg was convicted for the latter and only served 45 days in jail. By 1993, Mark Wahlberg was establishing his career in Hollywood as a serious actor and sex symbol. Calvin Klein advertisement had him in his underwear while grabbing his crotch with an animalistic suggestive look into the camera[2]. A giant billboard of him was placed in the middle of Time Square.

Mark Wahlberg's media reinvention occurred when a rise in Asian American hate crimes across the United States. As Historian Erika Lee writes about in The Making of Asian America, while the media discourse about Asian American identity is often rooted in changing social and political factors, it is the international context which can shape identities[3]. Popular films such as "Rising Sun" and "Falling Down" normalized images of violence against Asian Americans. Negative portrayals of East Asian Americans have a long history in Western culture[4].

For instance, the Spring 1993 issue of CAAAV writes about the meaning of "Oriental" and "Orientalism" in Western culture. "Oriental" conjures images of mystery, exoticism, inscrutability, inferiority, weirdness, and strangeness. This dehumanization made it acceptable for Western powers to dominate Asian countries during imperialism to build their wealth. The same connection was being made with Hollywood films using violence of Asian Americans for profit.

CAAAV made the same connection with Mark Wahlberg's career and his history of hate crimes against African and Asian Americans[5]. Mark Wahlberg, a Hollywood star, should not be allowed to reinvent his career without acknowledging his past. CAAAV stickered the city with "Marky Mark: Convicted Racist" and organized a press conference in Time Square. The event forced a public apology from Mark Wahlberg and helped shine a spotlight on Asian American hate crimes[6]. Today, the Asian American community is experiencing a rise in hate crimes not seen since the early 1990s.

The recent rise of hate crimes resulted from the Trump era politics[7], Covid -19 pandemic and its racist association with Asian Americans. Covid-19 became known as "The China Virus" and "Kung Flu Virus." for geopolitical purposes. The association of language to scapegoat the Asian American community is similar to the terms written earlier: mystery, exoticism, inscrutability, inferiority, weirdness, and strangeness. Just as Mark Wahlberg did not want the label of "convicted racist" to go along with his sex symbol status, America doesn't want to be labeled the same as a racist country. The importance of CAAAV archives is bringing awareness to such matters.

Notes

[1] Voice_Spring_1993_page 2

[2] Ibid. Page 7

[3] Lee, Erika, The Making of Asian America: A History(New York, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2015), page 381

[4] Ibid. Page 278

[5] Voice_Spring_1993_page 3

[6] Ibid. page 4

[7] Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning (New York, Random House, 2020) page 23, page 78.

1991

Beau Lancaster

This post was completed as coursework for HIST-GA 3901 Community Archives, taught by Maggie Schreiner, in the Archives and Public History MA program at New York University.

Copyright is held by CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities.

Photograph

CAAAV_1879