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7.15.2014

Canadian sitcom producer apologizes for offensive tweets

"In my hasty attempt to be funny I carelessly hurt many in the Asian community."

The cast of Spun Out

The latest in Twitter racism, coming out of Canada... In Toronto, a television producer has apologized for a series of racially insensitive tweets directed at fellow Chinese travelers during a recent flight.

Spun Out producer's tweets anger Asian community

Brent Piaskoski, executive producer of the Canadian sitcom Spun Out was traveling over the weekend when he became increasingly irritated by fellow plane passengers -- particularly those annoying Asian ones who were talking too loudly, lining up aggressively and eating too vigorously for his liking.

So, of course, he took to Twitter to express his frustrations. The July 12 tweets have since been deleted, but the Toronto Star reproduced some of Piakoski's best gems:

"I bet there is no Chinese character for Eat with your mouth closed," he said in one missive.

He sent out an Instagram picture showing Asian passengers in the airport waiting room with the title: "It's exactly as loud as you'd think."

A previous tweet said, "There is no shouting for Chinese people; Only talking."

And "Chinese woman now having a coughing fit. Does not stop her from eating an apple at the same time."

It seems he had a hard time boarding the plane.

"China leads the world in renewable energy investment and being the first in line when they open up for boarding."

And one tweet simply said, "OK. I'm just going to come out and say it. Chinese people are weird."
Funny enough, Piaskoski's show Spun Out is about a public relations firm that handles media disasters... like the one he seems to have gotten himself into. Piaskoski posted several apologetic tweets this morning:









I don't know, dude. They came from brain, which sent signals to your thumbs, which typed out those messages and ultimately hit "tweet" -- multiple times. Don't tell us that shit doesn't represent you. The casual racism of it all -- the fact that it never occurred to him that these tweets might be a bad idea -- is ugly but completely unsurprising.

More here: 'Spun Out' producer apologizes for tweets that 'hurt many in Asian community'