Yes, This Account Avoided Marlon Brando’s Yellowface Portrayal: A Thread

Everyone who has ever followed me knows that since the creation of this account, Marlon Brando has been a favorite.

And as time went on, my admiration for him went from thirst to full on idolization (which I usually hate when people do that to celebrities)

And Brando has a lot of stories against him like the accusation of him assaulting Maria Schneider (which is complicated) or him being really horrible to his wives and kids because of his childhood (which is true)

And subsequently as time went on I always had the reasons and answers for these accusations...

But one action by him could not be explained away. There was no miscommunication or misunderstanding.

And that’s the time he did yellow face

And he didn’t just do any yellowface. He wasn’t just playing an Asian character (which was common for white actors to do). He truly was doing a minstrel fashion mockery of Asian people

I always was baffled that he did this because he was so into the civil rights movement and seemingly had such a grasp on his place in the world as a white man

But what I’m realizing is that he wasn’t always that way

The movie in question is Teahouse Of The August Moon, and Brando not only is extremely condescending to East Asians in this film but he also pokes fun at topics like colonization and the genocide of Asian people and the destruction of Asian culture

There’s really no excuse in my eyes as to why he thought that this shit was okay.

And I know that he knew what he did was disgusting. Because even he went to reporters after the movie and said he wasn’t proud of this role

Brando spent most of his time exploring the world and learning new cultures, and that’s why it’s still confusing that he thought this was ok

After Teahouse Of The August Moon wrapped, the next film Brando got his hands on was Sayonara (1957) which was night and day compared to Teahouse of the August Moon (1956)

Instead, this film portrayed East Asian culture in a much more respectful and accurate way, without making a mockery of it.

Brando was also sure to stay away from yellowface, and instead make a film that started a conversation about the mistreatment of Asians at the hands of American soldiers

He never fully made a verbal apology for Teahouse Of The August Moon, and I wish he had.

But at the same time, most celebrities who apologize for being racially insensitive continue to show that they do not actually care and they’re just apologizing for clout

Brando was much more about action than words, and so in that way, I think his activism throughout his life is much more than any TikTok bitch you guys are hung up on