Chris Rock Criticized for Joke About Asian Children at the Oscars

Chris Rock didn’t shy away from jokes about the lack of diversity at the Oscars; he opened by welcoming the audience to the “white people’s choice awards” and closed the night inviting the all-white acting nominees to the BET Awards. But a joke of Rock’s in the middle of the ceremony, using three Asian children as props, is drawing ire over its use of stereotypes to make a punchline.

The joke in question came during the annual segment in which attorneys from PricewaterhouseCoopers — the accounting firm tasked with tallying and safeguarding the Oscar results — are brought on stage. It is typically one of the most dry elements of the night, but Rock’s attempt to infuse the segment with a little humor fell flat during what was an otherwise successful night of jokes.

“They sent us their most dedicated, accurate, and hard-working representatives,” Rock said onstage. “I want you to please welcome Ming Zu, Bao Ling, and David Moskowitz.”

Chris Rock and three “representatives” from PricewaterhouseCoopers (Photo: AP)

In that moment, out came three Asian children holding briefcases.

But if a joke about Asian children’s math proficiency wasn’t enough, Rock dug the knife in deeper with a joke about their exploitation in the international manufacturing industry.

“If anybody’s upset about that joke, just tweet about it on your phone that was also made by these kids,” Rock said.

The racist bit stands out as a glaring moment of tone-deafness in a night which highlighted the struggles of people of color in the entertainment industry. While Rock’s jokes about non-white actors’s exclusion from the nominations shone a light on the Academy’s failings to value equality, the bit about Asian kids being good at math shone a light on his own failings to do the same.