Is ‘Asian Girlz’ the most racist song and music video ever?

Daniel Bettridge
·Blogger

A new music video has gone viral this week for all of the wrong reasons. “Asian Girlz” has attracted more than 208,000 views in just three days since it was posted on YouTube by the band Day Above Ground, an American emo outfit whose website likens them to Led Zepplin, the Doors, Linkin Park and Wu Tang Clan.

Warning: This video may not be safe for work.

The entirely NSFW video shows the band locked in a cage and as they watch an Asian woman strip down to her lingerie. All the while we’re treated to lyrics that tick off just about every offensive stereotype you can imagine, with lyrics about “sticky rice,” “happy endings,” “slanted eyes” and “tofu all over you.” And those are just the lines we can publish here!

The video has understandably sparked outrage online and there’s even talk of an organised protest outside of the band’s next gig. The uproar has prompted the band to post a response on their YouTube page excusing their actions:

“This song is us, Day Above Ground, making fun of ourselves (and many, many other guys) obsession with the always lovely, Asian Woman. It pushes this concept to an absurd level, but at the same time is endearing & submissive.. WE ARE NOT RACIST, HAHA! I mean, look at our band, it's multicultural!! The guy in the bow-tie, our cutie bass player, was born in Indonesia, and he steals the show!! Please don't take this tongue-in-cheek tribute to some of the most gorgeous women on the planet too seriously!! You'll ruin the fun of it all!! Thanks for watching, sincerely!!”

Model Levy Tran, who stars in the video as the titular “Asian Girl,” was bombarded with comments on her Facebook page on Wednesday before she eventually shut it down. "Was it worth selling out and degrading all the Asian women for a little bit of money? How can you support such a racist song?" read one post.

Tran eventually took to her Twitter page to apologize for her involvement in the video:

https://twitter.com/MissLevy/status/362651200061063171

https://twitter.com/MissLevy/status/362653150781509633

What do you think of the video? Do you think there’s any way to justify it? And what do you think of the band and Miss Levy’s response? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.