Floyd Mayweather Uses Asian Stereotypes to Trash Manny Pacquiao

Trash talk and boxing go hand-in-hand. But in a videotaped rant, boxer Floyd Mayweather didn’t just insult rival Manny Pacquiao’s prowess in the ring, he mocked him for being Asian.

“Once I stomp the midget, I’m gonna make that mother___er  make me a sushi roll and cook me some rice,” bragged the African-American Mayweather. Apparently, it’s of no consequence to Mayweather that sushi is Japanese and Pacquiao is Filipino, as Mayweather seems to believe that Asian ethnic groups are interchangeable.

He later called Pacquiao a “f____t,” using homophobia to stereotype Asian men as feminine, and threatened to “cook that motherf___er up with some dogs and cats.”

Mayweather’s rant is textbook racist, and the fact that he’s black doesn’t let him off the hook.  But visitors to websites such as the Huffington Post, which posted video of his tirade, are defending the champ. They argue that Mayweather probably doesn’t really hate Asians and that his rant against Pacquiao isn’t as offensive as Muhammad Ali’s rants against his competitors.

Such points are irrelevant, though.

One needn’t hate members of another race to believe that they’re inferior. And with the ugly stereotypes Mayweather dredged up about Asians in his rant, I’ve no qualms about labeling the boxer’s words “racist.” Whether he truly hates Asians is beside the point, considering that he used the same hate speech to berate Pacquiao that bigots use to justify brutalizing minorities — from Asians to blacks to Latinos. Moreover, to defend Mayweather by saying he’s not as bad as Ali — who once called fellow black boxer Joe Frazier a “gorilla” — is like saying Dr. Laura isn’t so bad because she only dropped the N-word 11 times while another celebrity dropped it 12 times. We must set the bar higher.

Because this isn’t the first time a celebrity has launched a race-based attack against Pacquiao, the public should be especially outraged. Back in April, radio personality Adam Carolla made a remark about Pacquiao “praying to chicken bones” due to the boxer’s Filipino background. During the same discussion, Carolla also said that the Philippines had nothing to offer but boxing champ Pacquiao and “sex tours.”

Imagine if an African American athlete had been put down because of his race — not by one but two public figures. I’d expect blacks, whites and everyone in-between to be up in arms. Perhaps because Asians are stereotyped as being the “model minority” and the racism aimed at them is often dished out under the guise of humor, the public tends not take anti-Asian sentiment seriously. In fact, throughout his rant against Pacquiao, Mayweather chuckled. He no doubt thought it was funny to brag about cooking up Pacquiao with “cats and dogs.” But the Filipino community isn’t laughing.

Filipino activist Dennis Arguelles of the group Search to Involve Pilipino Americans is demanding that Mayweather apologize.

“As a person of color, you’d think he’d know better than to use racial and ethnic slurs,” Arguelles told L.A. news station ABC 7.

In other words, the fact that Mayweather’s black doesn’t give him a pass to use racially offensive language. Racial put downs aren’t trash talk, but hate speech. Click here to send that very message to Mayweather.

Photo Credit: Mark Kobayashi-Hillary