Saturday, May 08, 2004

INCORRECT CHARLIE CHAN

Excerpts from an article by Jerry Della Femina

I thought about Political Correctness the other night while I watched a tape of an old Charlie Chan movie. I love Charlie Chan. Poor Charlie was one of the first victims of the Politically Correct Mafia. In case you're too young to remember, he was the jolly little round Chinese detective in those great mystery movies of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. His movies can no longer be seen on television. They're banned.

Charlie Chan was assisted by his Number 1 son and his driver, Birmingham Brown. Both the kid and the driver were frightened, blithering idiots. Charlie spent most of the time in the movie giving us his corny "Confucius say . . ." fortune cookie sayings that are not unlike the great philosophical insights we now see written on our bumper stickers and our T-shirts.

Charlie always got his man. But then one day, Charlie Chan was murdered in cold blood. Killed by a whole new generation that decided Charlie Chan movies were not politically correct. The Asians (they were called Orientals in those days) hated that he was a stereotypical Chinese man. He spoke with a Chinese accent. It didn't help that Charlie Chan was played by Caucasians (Sidney Toler and Roland Winters) who were pretending to be Chinese. The PC hated that his Number 1 son was a dope and probably was the first Chinese person in history who wasn't good at math. Black groups hated the fact that he had a driver and the driver was black and was something of a boob. Holier-than-thou political groups marched against Charlie Chan. Grown men got up and made speeches against Charlie and all that he stood for.

In time, not one single television station in the country would carry these movies

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