In the larger context of the myth of American identity, the usage of terms the likes of “banana,” “coconut,” and “twinkie” speak directly to those issues of conflicting cultural identity germane to Asian American communities. They are pejorative terms expressing a low opinion or a lack of respect, and they function as ethnic stereotypes betraying a larger system of beliefs about nationality, socioeconomic status, and societal and cultural norms ingrained within the dominant or majority culture. Occasionally, they are used as hate speech and constitute attacks on the basis of gender, ethnic origin, religion, race, disability, or sexual orientation. And as examples of “internalized racism,” perpetuating the racist stereotypes and beliefs from within the group, they take a toll on self-esteem and personal integrity, insofar as they distort internal feelings and self-perception. Many individuals within Asian American communities subscribe to the false sentiment that they do not experience the sort of racism and prejudice that plagues other minority groups, and as a result, they tacitly facilitate the racist behavior that aims at their own marginalization.
The term banana has universal currency within the English-speaking world as an ethnic slur referring to an individual of Asian ethnicity now living in the West. Denoting someone perceived as being “yellow on the outside and white on the inside,” the term indicates a cultural disconnect between individuals living in the United States and their place of national origin. As an ethnic slur, it conveys both a betrayal of race or culture and a resulting sense of self-loathing.
From humor to racist and sexual images, the banana has enjoyed popularity among comedians, musicians, politicians, and performers alike. The television shows How I Met Your Mother and Saturday Night Live have made use of “yellow face” to carry the brunt of racial slurs. The public eye rarely deems racism committed against Asians as unacceptable. The ubiquitous nature of the “dancing banana” as an icon across the World Wide Web illustrates the degree to which racism against Asians is propagated in the absence of discernible scrutiny. For example, in Harry Turtledove’s two-novel alternate history of the initial stages of the Pacific War, Days of Infamy (2004), Corporal Aiso cautions Takeo Shimizu and his men not to trust the Hawaiian locals, especially the local Japanese whom he berates as bananas. At first confused, Shimizu comes to understand the larger matters of whitewashing and assimilation as he concedes that, while the Hawaiian Japanese may look like them, they think like Americans.
Consider the death threats, laden with racial slurs, received by hundreds of Asian American students at Harvard University. The hatred behind such offensive language recently led a group of Asian American students and their supporters at the University of Illinois to start an organization called Paradox, which launched a program called “My Banana Story.” Recognizing that racialized taunts and bullying had contributed in large part to their choice to assimilate into a seemingly monolithic white American culture, these students were struck by the irony when the banana slur was thrown back at them as a result of their attempts to conform. Members embraced the notion that acts of ethnic conformity are tantamount to cultural suicide and posted photos of themselves with a banana pointed like a gun to their heads.
A similar context provides additional insight into the ill-conceived usage of the racist slur. Recently a major Chinese government news service published a mean-spirited editorial referring to the departing American ambassador Gary Locke as a “rotten banana.” Although he had widely been applauded for carrying his own bags and for having traveled economy class, the ruling elite in Beijing took offense at his rejection of the concept of power-distance maintained in traditional Chinese culture in favor of the more egalitarian American norms. Likewise, the term reflected the acute loathing of Chinese nationalists toward the first Chinese American to have served as the top U.S. envoy to Beijing.
In an attempt to reclaim the term as a form of empowerment, we have of late witnessed its embodiment with Eddie Huang, who embraces himself as a self-professed “rotten banana” in his memoir Fresh off the Boat (2013), the very same memoir that inspired the ABC sitcom with the same name starring Randall Park.
The term coconut has a similar meaning. Used by Filipino-born individuals against American-born Filipinos or to describe someone of South Asian descent who has assimilated into Western culture, the logic remains the same: coconuts are “brown on the outside and white on the inside.” The former usage can be found in the film The Debut (2001), directed by Gene Cajayon. The main character, the pinoy Ben, finds himself isolated and alone, out of touch with his Filipino American family. Unable to relate to his elder relatives who preserve their own culture, he is unable to speak the Tagalog language nor is he able to dance as his parents do. Instead, he shares far more in common with his Caucasian friends, so much so, in fact, that Augusto addresses him as “White Man.” The latter usage for South Asians can be seen in the coming-of-age novel Shine, Coconut Moon (2009) by Neesha Meminger. Seventeen-year-old Samar “Sam” Ahluwahlia wanders aimlessly through life, until once day at school when another student refers to her as a coconut, thereby setting her on a path in search of self-identity and toward self-discovery and a renewed sense of self-worth.
Recently, the term has gained a renewed use in the public sphere. In the United Kingdom, for example, Shirley Brown, a black councillor, was found guilty of racial harassment for calling her Asian political opponent, Jay Jethwa, a coconut. The implication of her usage could not have been clearer, as she hurled accusations of self-betrayal, as well as of betraying his race and his specific cultural identity. And in the United States, advertising executive Donny Deutsch uttered the term on national television as a deliberate anti-Hispanic ethnic slur against Florida GOP candidate Marco Rubio. His intent was obvious: to stigmatize Rubio as an inauthentic Hispanic who is unworthy of Hispanic support in heavily Hispanic Florida.
The term twinkie, however, is somewhat more complicated in the range of its uses. It is currently used to refer to a European American with few or no social or blood links to any indigenous tribe, who nonetheless claims to be Native American. It also can refer to any Asian American individual who, having lost any understanding of Asian values, has become completely integrated into white—so-called mainstream—American culture. It is in this sense that Harold, a Korean American, is referred to as a “twinkie” in the box-office hit Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004). The reference derives from the innocuous snack food of the same name, as “yellow on the outside and white on the inside.”
The term also appears in usage among the LGBTQ community. In this context, the term is rooted in perceived sexual orientation or preconceived gender identity. The contrast exists between a twink and a bear, the former recognized by his slender build and overall youthful appearance, and the latter by his hirsute and stocky build. The long-running American musical comedy–drama television series Glee (2009–2015) made much of this distinction in its third season with Kurt’s unexpected meeting with his former nemesis at the local gay bar; and in the sixth season, as Blaine comes to appreciate the sheer number of erstwhile partners—and their profound sense of sameness—of his then-current love interest.
However simple such racial epithets may appear, they are actually far more complex metaphors, at times almost synesthetic. Doubtless, the phenomenon implicitly relies on using “yellow” or “brown,” “black” or “white,” or “red”—color markers—as fair and clear descriptions of race. By extension, if race can be reduced to color, then individuals are reducible to the foods they commonly consume.
James Allan Wren
See also Racism in Urban Legends
Further Reading
Gawthrop, Daniel. 2005. The Rice Queen Diaries. Vancouver, BC: Arsenal Pulp Press.
Han, C. Winter. 2015. Geisha of a Different Kind: Race and Sexuality in Gaysian America (Intersections). New York: New York University Press.
Huang, Eddie. Fresh off the Boat. 2013. New York: Spiegel & Grau.
Lee, Rachel C. 2012. The Exquisite Corpse of Asian America. New York: New York University Press.
Meminger, Neesha. 2009. Shine, Coconut Moon. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Min, Pyong Gap, ed. 2005. Asian Americans: Contemporary Trends and Issues. New York: Sage.
Schlung-Vials, Cathy J., Linda Trinh Võ, and K. Scott Wong, eds. 2015. Keywords for Asian American Studies. New York: New York University Press.