When Yuli Gurriel of the Houston Astros made a gesture and used a racially charged term toward The Dodger’s Yu Darvish, who is of Japanese and Iranian descent, it triggered a larger discussion about racist terms toward Asians and Asian Americans
Jason Chu, a rapper based in Los Angeles, was out with his wife on Friday when he saw his Twitter feed start to blow up.
Yuli Gurriel, one of the key members of the Houston Astros, had been caught by television cameras during Game 3 of the World Series making a gesture and mouthing a word with racial overtones targeting Asian Americans.
After hitting a home run off the Dodgers’ Yu Darvish, Gurriel put his fingers to the sides of his face, lifted the corners of his eyes and mouthed the word “ chinito,” Spanish for “Chinese boy.” Darvish is of Japanese and Iranian descent.
The incident prompted another round in the long-running discussion about anti-Asian stereotypes and slurs in American culture. Major League Baseball on Saturday slapped Gurriel with a five-game suspension — to be served next season.
“It just felt like, ‘Man, again?’ Like, we’re so used to this,” said Chu. “People don’t even pause. They think that this is acceptable, socially, to target Asian Americans in this way, or Asians in general.”
As a rapper and hip-hop artist, Chu said he understood that trading insults was often part of that world.
“But at least do it creatively,” he said. “This just felt like a ‘lowest common denominator’ type of situation where he didn’t have anything else he could do, so we just went to this very basic kind of response.”
Britny Cuellar and her husband, decked out in Astros gear, walked outside Houston’s Minute Maid Park on Saturday pushing their 2-year-old daughter in a stroller. The Gurriel gesture caused them to groan because they worried it would overshadow everything the team had accomplished and all this city has been through this year, said Cuellar, a 27-year-old elementary school teacher from nearby Crosby who has lived in the Houston area her whole life.
