In 2011, Donald Glover, under his stage name Childish Gambino, pretended to be an Asian girl on Tumblr. Where has his obsession with Asian culture taken him since?
Donald Glover started gaining fame for his role on the 2009 hit NBC sitcom “Community,” then quickly showed his versatility through stand-up comedy, and even pursuing music. He would easily achieve success in his different endeavors, but one thing remained the same: his controversial obsession with Asian culture.
Glover also performed stand-up at the same time he was starring on “Community”. Comedy was a lot different just 10 years ago compared to now, meaning it wasn’t unusual to hear plenty of jokes with problematic punchlines. Glover often made harmful jokes about race, disabilities and even rape, tampering his character early on.
With the release of Camp in 2011, Glover transitioned from acting and comedy to music. In this album, Glover would mention Asian women not once, not twice, but several times. In lyrics like, “I need some variation/Especially if she Asian,” from You See Me, he fetishizes Asian women. While it might seem like a harmless reference to Asian women, it’s a demeaning comment that feels like Glover is only attracted to one aspect of Asian women: the fact that they are Asian.
The stereotype of quiet, docile Asian women is dehumanizing and dangerous. It leaves Asian women with no identity but subordination. On the same album, in the song Kids (Keep Up), Gambino even addresses his hyper-fixation with Asian women in the lines, “Finding you is like finding Asians I hate/But they say I got a fetish, nah, I’m skipping all of it/Black or white girls always come with a set of politics.” Not only does Glover degrade other women, but he also further dehumanizes Asian women by implying they have no voice or political ideas.
If his history in standup and questionable lyrics weren’t already bad enough, Glover continued making questionable decisions. Celebrities often venture into different businesses such as cosmetics or clothing, but Glover chose a very specific business: a bubble tea shop. In 2023, he opened a bubble tea shop called Jellyman Tea in Los Angeles, California. While a bubble tea shop is, again, seemingly harmless, when considering his past obsession with Asian culture, it’s a bit odd and borderline exploitative. What right does Glover have opening an Asian beverage shop for his own profit, when he’s done nothing but cause damage to the Asian community?
More recently, Glover dabbled back into acting through the television series “Mr. & Mrs. Smith.” In one scene, Glover’s character, John, speaks with other men about their preferences for Asian and Latina women. Later in the show, John and Jane (the woman lead) review this interaction in couple’s therapy, where much like Glover in real life, John deflects the issue and denies it. Glover was active in this project as a producer and script writer.
In a 2012 interview with Hard Knock TV, Glover was asked about his Asian fetish and even states, “People think I have a fetish. I don’t know; maybe I do,” then continues to talk about how Asian women are easier to date than white or Black women. This is again very damaging to Asian women, as it completely erases them of an identity beyond race and hypersexualizes them as objects, not people. It’s also demeaning and generalizing to compare women based on their race in principle.
With Glover’s major successes in acting and music, it’s time he addresses his troubling past with Asian women. Donald Glover owes women of many backgrounds, but especially Asian women, an apology.
