Rush Hour: An Unexpected Image of Black and Asian Solidarity

In this video, I break down the racial humor in Rush Hour and discuss its impact regarding Black and Asian Americans, especially considering the fact that many Black and Asian Americans still enjoy the films.

Sources:
It's Still a Guy Thing: The Evolution of Buddy Movies | LA Times

‘Rush Hour’ Angers Some Asian Americans | Washington Post

Let your boys be a little foul-mouthed. It might help them bond. | Washington Post

The history of tensions—and solidarity—between Black and Asian American communities, explained | Vox

Embattled Korean Grocers Wait Out Racially Charged Boycott | Washington Post

In 1968, These Activists Coined the Term 'Asian American'—And Helped Shape Decades of Advocacy | TIME

The real reasons the U.S. became less racist toward Asian Americans | The Washington Post

Affirmative action divided Asian Americans and other people of color. Here's how | NPR

Some Asian Americans say affirmative action ruling used the group as ‘pawns’ | NBC News

Meet Edward Blum, the Man Who Wants to Kill Affirmative Action in Higher Education | ACLU

Civility in The City by Jennifer Lee

0:00 Intro
2:50 1) An Asian Guy & Black Guy Walk into a Buddy Movie
17:14 2) Contextualizing Rush Hour
26:02 3) Breaking Down the Narrative

[QualityCulture]

Since this video is blowing up, I’ll just politely ask everyone to watch the *whole* video before leaving a comment. A lot of y’all are complaining about things that are eventually addressed and/or refuted with sources cited *on the screen*

Also, let’s do better than simply replying to the thumbnail 😂

Much love ✌🏼
-Terrence

[KatieKatt]

I love how majority of the bloopers for these movies is just Jackie Chan messing up English and getting mad and then in the third one Chris has to say three words in Chinese and gets them wrong and Jackie goes, “Ha! See! Not easy speaking another language, is it? You all make fun of me! You have THREE WORDS! I have THREE MOVIES!” while everyone dies of laughter 😂

[stealthisoverrated]

The reason why the jokes work is because the racism never came from a hateful heart and the fact that Chris and Jackie became best friends made the film more enjoyable to watch.

[ethelping]

"I'll slap you so hard, you'll end up in the Ming dynasty", is so out of nowhere and hilarious because the fact Carter knew about different dynasties gave it another layer

[itrashcant]

I grew up in a community with a lot of black and Asian people, so I never knew there was conflict between them until I got older. We would share things from our own cultures and partake in those shared cultures. Many of my black peers loved anime, and many of my Asian peers loved rap. It’s neat to see Afro-Asian solidarity in mainstream media because it does exist.

[mzy]

As a chinese person...

Its not because its a different time, its because it works in the movie, the racism isnt a point, its a storytelling tool.

Rush hour was always within its bounds. Its a story about 2 different cultures clashing, how their relationship struggles and grows, and how they overcome their differences. The 'racism' goes from distain for eachother, to comradarie jabs. Which is a very real human interaction.

If you think its different now, then you likely were laughing at the "racism", and not the comedy, and missed the story beats alltogether

[connorhealy]

“Rush Hour is the reason Rotten Tomato’s exist” is one of those facts I’m just gonna be slowly digesting for the rest of my life

[derek]

Let's be real here: race jokes are not always the same as racist jokes.

[AudyBharksuwana]

As a Thai-American going through high school in England, my best friend being black(Nigerian) the Rush-Hour films just hit so hard.

We loved them so much we’d quote the jokes back and forth at each other. One day he switched it up a bit and said “I’ll bitch-slap you back to Siam”(in his Chris Tucker voice”. Caught me off guard and we just laughed our asses off. Once the laughs were seemingly about to die out, there would be a short pause, then one of us would break out laughing again infecting the other, rinse repeat for like 10 minutes.

[ddayyou]

NGL, as a Chinese, the line of 'slap you back to the ming dynasty' was funny as hell

[hartthorn]

I feel a big part of the charm is both Tucker and Chan were happy to let their characters be wrong and look ridiculous. Even when they each do something racist, it's not framed as them being right but them being foolish. And then when they bond, it's there as well, where they act like "I don't give a shit who's watching, I'm here with my BOY!" It's an oddly vulnerable depiction of masculine friendship even under all the jabs at each other.

[veganspringroll]

Gentle reminder to everyone that you can love a piece of media while still criticising it.

[chenrayen]

One big thing that I think often is overlooked: Lee is a foreigner who lands in LA on a mission, not an Asia American going about ever day life—this to me makes the stereotypes and comedy even more over the top but also somewhat understandable.

[tiffanypersaud]

I attended an anti-racism workshop at work last month and a black coworker said, "I had to move past thinking I cannot be racist because I am black." Solid. There's this film where both POCs, black and Asian, are racist toward each other especially because of stereotypes and prejudices, but they came to respect each other, and I'm grateful it exists as such a fun and teachable piece in cinematic history.

[Mathias-t]

One of my best friends who I sadly lost contact with was Asian and I remember people in school calling us "Rush Hour" because we would always be inseparable and messing around with each other lmao. Love to all of my Asian brothers and sisters.

- A fellow black man

[Kage]

As an African American the line “I’ll bitch slap you back to Africa” had me and my family laughing so much lol great callback to the first movie

[skrishna]

My biggest gripe? This is not about Asians though. It's about a chinese cop and a black american cop.

It's about black culture and chinese culture. Calling it Asian is disingenuous to the multiple other cultures that are being blanketed under the term Asian when this movie simply depicts chinese culture.

[corimyers]

I had just bought my house when COVID hit. I’m a black woman. My Asian neighbor down the way was the first to visit my house, even before my family. But when the attacks started the most hurtful thing that happened was I honked as I passed her walking to say hello. Before she realized it was me, she looked so afraid. I worked that day and had my black co-workers express they didn’t care about Asian folk (not all, but quite a few) I said I would not allow anyone to hurt her. They said said we’d both get killed and my response was “Then the last thing she will see before we both die, is me protecting her”. I don’t even know her name. But when no other white neighbor has still come to say hello, she did. It meant worlds. I got her back, even if she doesn’t know it.

[Mediocritical]

4:06 At this point in the film, Lee has been established as a character with very little understanding of American culture and history, ESPECIALLY that of the black community. He just saw Carter using the word casually and seemingly as a term of endearment, was just told by Carter to "do what he does, " and with no other information present, does what he thinks will make the situation more amicable while he's standing there alone, feeling out of place and awkward. It makes complete sense that Lee would mimic Carter's vernacular given the established character. Yes, it was used to set up an action comedy scene, but it's still entirely consistent with his character and not done out of malice, but ignorance.

[adoresessy]

Not all the jokes aged well and it's not a perfect movie but this movie has a special place in my heart. You don't really get movies with a Black and Asian leads together and having such charm and chemistry.