Boston radio host suspended for racially insensitive impression of NFL agent

[Judi Lynn]

Source: NBC News

by CHELSEA BAILEY
FEB 10 2018, 4:33 PM ET

Boston sports-talk radio host Christian Fauria said he's reached out to Tom Brady's athletic agent, Don Yee, to personally apologize for performing a racially "insensitive" impersonation during a bit on his popular sports radio show.

Fauria was suspended Friday amid backlash over what he later described as a "horrible attempt at humor," in which he adopted a pseudo-Asian accent to impersonate Yee.

He later posted an apology to Twitter, acknowledging that the antic was "insensitive and regrettable."

"I want to publicly apologize to Don and anyone in the audience who heard it," Fauria wrote. "I have also reached out to Don directly to personally apologize."

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/boston-radio-host-suspended-racially-insensitive-impression-nfl-agent-n846706

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Fauria

WEEI in Boston announced on Friday night that they have suspended host Christian Fauria for mocking Tom Brady’s agent, Don Yee.

During Friday’s edition of “Ordway, Merloni & Fauria”, the show hosts did a skit about the Boston Herald reporter getting fooled into writing an article that Brady was going to hold out from camp. As part of the skit, Fauria, a former Patriots tight end, played Yee. But he did so using a stereotypical and offensive Asian accent.

WEEI removed the audio from their website, though you can hear it at Deadspin.

Hours after the story began receiving attention, WEEI announced on Twitter that they have suspended Fauria for an “insensitive and ill-conceived attempt at humor.”

http://larrybrownsports.com/football/weei-suspends-christian-fauria-tom-brady-don-yee/427262

[oberliner]

1. I don't understand how shows like Family Guy do this kind of thing all the time

With no consequence.

[BumRushDaShow]

3. Family Guy can hide behind being a "cartoon". nt

[oberliner]

9. Other non-cartoon shows as well though

It seems like mocking Asians is still considered OK generally speaking. Glad that does seem to be slowly changing here and there.

[BumRushDaShow]

19. I looked this guy up

and he was born and raised in California (Encino), so it's not like he wasn't exposed to many cultures.

But then Boston was and still is probably one of the most racist cities in the nation, as much "good" P.R. that the city seems to get, so playing to that crowd is probably a feather in his cap.

[7962]

21. Southerners are still fair game as well.

[Oneironaut]

22. I don't think Family Guy is funny either.

I'm not really offended by it. It's just that the jokes are very lazy. Seth MacFarlane tries way too hard to be edgy.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. And the thing that scummy racists tend to do

is to blindly apply stereotypes to people who don't even come close to being that stereotype .

Here is Don Yee speaking (he was born and raised in California) -

[trof]

4. Ah so.

[lunasun]

27. Yes you can find it right here folks . No reason to look further . Listen to the clip and then

decide if this is what you hear

[Ken Burch]

7. And he doesn't call ANY of his kids "Number One Son".

[Ferrets are Cool]

5. I want to ask a serious question

I absolutely understand that it's very wrong and insensitive to mock someone's heritage in any manner.

I live in the deep south and always have lived here, thus, like it or not, I have a southern accent.
The southern accent is mocked ALL THE TIME and everyone laughs and thinks nothing of it. It is seemingly associated with being slow, stupid and ignorant....sitting on the front porch, watching the chickens scratch in the yard with no grass.

No one, that I am aware of, has ever been suspended or fired for mocking a southern accent.

Is this not a double standard? Please help me to understand. And, if I am incorrect in my thinking, tell me so.

[rpannier]

6. I get your point

But I think it has to do with it being a regional dialect and it happens to more than one region that they get away with it.

In TV and movies west coasters, especially Californians, have the 'Surfer Dude' dialect, which makes them sound like airheads (the surfer dude dialect is usually accompanied by some lame laugh).
People from the New York - New Jersey area usually sound like they hate and are threatening everyone. "I got yer ... right here!"
Vermont and New Hampshire all sound like a Peppridge Farms guy, only rather clueless. You don't see much of this because there aren't a lot of shows/movies that happen in this area -- watch the Newhart Show from the late 80's early 90's for example
There is a Kentucky accent that usually involves the person looking like Colonel Sanders

[oberliner]

8. Did you watch or listen to the clip?

[Ferrets are Cool]

10. Is it relevant to my question?

I honestly didn't because I can imagine how the accent was treated. As I said, it is deplorable.

[oberliner]

11. Yes

In the clip the person does an exaggerated stereotypical "Asian" accent that bears no resemblance whatsoever to the way the person in question speaks (he was born and raised in the United States and has lived here his entire life).

[Ferrets are Cool]

12. I still do not see how it is relevant to my question.

I assumed what you said is true. I would rather not foul my ears with trash.
My question still stands as is.

[oberliner]

13. You gave the example of a southern accent

So if there is a sports figure who speaks with a southern accent and someone is impersonating him on the radio and doing that accent then there is a relationship between the impression and the reality.

In this case, the person in question just has an Asian surname so the radio personality does an entirely ridiculous voice that bears no relationship to the way the person speaks.

[Ferrets are Cool]

14. Are you insinuating that

southern accents are not used and exaggerated to make all southerners seem stupid and ignorant? I've seen and heard it done many times. I'm only asking if that is acceptable behavior?

[oberliner]

15. I think anyone who does that is doing something offensive

If a host of a radio show did a mocking accent and implied all southerners were stupid and ignorant then I would hope that they would be chastised for doing so.

There is an added element of racism, I think, when a white person mocks a person of color (especially when the person of color does not sound at all like the voice being used).

[Ferrets are Cool]

16. We are in agreement

"mostly". And as someone earlier said...it's not just southerners...many groups get trashed for their accents. It is still curious to me that there are certain groups that it is more acceptable to mock than others. I do not believe we should mock anyone for being different.
The most egregious offender is of course our very own pResident. He has mocked so many different groups that it is hard to keep up.

[oberliner]

17. He is a national embarrassment

On that we agree as well.

[BumRushDaShow]

18. There is a reason the film "Tobacco Road" is rarely shown anymore

and most likely because of the stereotypes that it is laden with regarding poor whites.

The movie is supposed to be a "comedy" but it embodies exactly what POC get a hundred times more of in film and television than southerners in general... And the irony is that black southerners and white southerners from the same region naturally sound alike AND it is just common sense to realize that wherever someone is raised, everyone there will sound alike no matter what race or creed or color.

Hell - look at Tweety and Smerconish.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

23. hollyweird fake accents offend

Very few in hollyweird ever get southern accents right. Note that is plural. There is no singular southern accent. Hell, they's fo' oah five right 'rounchere in the state where I growed up.

Radio and tv have somewhat homogenized dialects and accents. They are still regionally distinct, however.

[BumRushDaShow]

24. Exactly

[paleotn]

25. You do have a point...

and that's why some of us have learned to turn the accent on and off, sometimes at will and sometimes unconsciously. Those from outside the south can still detect a slight southern pronunciation of vowels, but Southerners think I'm from up north. Many years ago, my wife to be was amazed that I could flip a switch and speak with perfect middle TN accent and vernacular as though I were born to it. Well, I was. She's was born down here, but her parents are from up north and made absolutely sure she did not pick up some south Knoxville accent growing up.

The point is, stereotypes are indefensible in any direction and foolish. This particular one is not good mental shortcut in deciding if someone is a conservo-nut and / or an uneducated rube.

[lunasun]

28. Yee doesn't have any type of Asian accent

Do people just see your face and assume you will have an accent ? Unlikely

[LanternWaste]

30. I wish as a good-old southern white boy, I could get outraged

I wish as a good-old southern white boy who makes fun of southern, as well as Boston, MN and mid-Atlantic accents too, I could get outraged at the oppression you outline.

"It is seemingly associated with being slow, stupid and ignorant..."
Your bias most likely forces you to make that association, as there are numerous literary and even film archetypes that use the one, yet not the other.



But I get it... self-martyrdom, however unsubtle it may appear, is fun.

Regardless, Yee has no Asian accent... none. But a false-accent was attributed to her solely due to her appearance. That seems to be the point you are going out of your way to miss.

[Ferrets are Cool]

31. Just never mind. Some of you just dont seem to get it at all. Case Closed. nm

[TheCowsCameHome]

20. EEI is a bedwetter station...

...that caters to losers.

[sharedvalues]

26. EEI caters to losers. Callahan is right wing propaganda

Exactly!

All of right wing radio caters to losers.

[MissMillie]

29. I don't find humor

in any comments, impersonations, etc that mock people for who they are.

Anyone who resorts to that should think about getting out of the comedy business.

Behavior is fair game. Ethnicity, sexual orientation and/or identity, gender, skin color, and (yes) regional accents are not.