Oh Miley, has not the almighty Mouse disciplined you enough for your half-naked Vanity Fair pictures? Have you learned nothing from the backlash received from last year’s quote unquote racy-for-a-16-year-old MySpace pictures? The third strike surfaced this week and features the widely adored and highly paid Disney actress/singer squinting her eyes with a group of friends mocking people of Asian descent. Also in the picture is a Cyrus friend who is of the naturally-not-squinting variety.

Was he strategically placed? Perhaps she had a checklist of offensive types of photos she wanted to circulate on the Internet—as if she needed the extra publicity! Half-naked, suggestive photos that are kind of okay because it’s just half-naked and also—I had no idea I was going to be shot like this and/or they’d be found on MySpace…check. Racially insensitive photo that’s kind of okay because hey…my ONE Asian friend is in it, too, and I just called my publicist, and she said it was okay…check.

Okay?
I think not. Asian American advocacy group OCA doesn’t think so either. In response to the photo, they issued the following statement:

“Not only has Miley Cyrus and the other individuals in the photograph encouraged and legitimized the taunting and mocking of people of Asian descent, she has also insulted her many Asian Pacific American fans.

The inclusion of an Asian Pacific American individual in the photo does not make it acceptable.

We hope that Miley Cyrus will apologise to her fans and the APA community for this lapse in judgment and takes the opportunity to better understand why the gesture is offensive.”

So, they’re not mad at the one Asian friend? I want to be mad at him, but I don’t know how much control he had in the situation. If you’re an Asian American aspiring to ‘make it,’ how do you say no to Miley and her minions? There’s one thing I know for certain: Disney is mad. This time, I hope they act accordingly.