band Apology For OUr “Streak ‘O Lean, Streak ‘O Fat” video

We made a video in 2007 that some of you may have seen to the track from our record Waterloo, TN called “Streak O’Lean, Streak O’Fat.” We have taken it down so as to not continue to harm those who come across it.

We, the members of Uncle Earl, are very sorry for the pain and damage inflicted by our video “Streak o’ Lean, Streak o’ Fat”. It is racist and hurtful. We used our superficial understanding of a comedic kung fu movie genre from the ‘70s and ‘80s to inspire ignorant and appropriated aesthetic choices. In our video these include server costuming, prop selection, bad overdubs, and slapstick physical comedy that all perpetuate harmful Asian American stereotypes. Another glaring failure was the lack of Asian American people being involved or consulted on the project. As white women, we believe these errors add up to an unexamined reenactment of a white supremacist tendency to take from another cultures’ creativity to benefit one’s own work.

Targeted. Invisible. Perpetual foreigners. These are words we hear from Asian American friends and Asian Americans in the media about what it is like to be Asian American. We understand that the video we created only perpetuates an environment that will engender exclusion and appropriation within our music community and the world at-large.

Thank you to the members of this Facebook group, and our shared music community in general, for doing the hard work of bringing this 14-year-old video to the foreground as an example of what needs to change.

We have taken the video down. We all agree that we don’t want this emblem of racism in our music community to continue to harm those that come across it.

As a band, we are donating to Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Atlanta as well as Red Canary Song. As a band and as individuals we dedicate ourselves to the hard work of internal resistance to supremacist tendencies. We ally ourselves with the work of brave and thoughtful leaders who light the way forward, in our community and at large. As a band and as individuals we commit ourselves to making music and art that is inclusive.