Former MTV News Host Recalls Racist Incident Involving Misogynistic, Violent Language

Former MTV News host SuChin Pak took to Instagram to recall a racist incident that involved misogynistic and violent language from a co-worker. In her post, Pak — who was born in South Korea — wrote, “Years ago, when I was a news correspondent at MTV, I overheard a colleague of mine, while watching me do the news that evening, tell a room full of people that I looked like a ‘me sucky sucky love you long time’ whore.” The comment made about Pak is paraphrased from a quote in the film Full Metal Jacket. In the scene, the line is delivered by a Vietnamese prostitute who is approaching an American soldier.

“I was young, afraid as usual to cause a fuss or be seen as difficult or too ‘sensitive,’ being the only female in the newsroom so I didn’t say anything in the moment,” Pak explained. The following day, Pak states she was hit with the full weight of the crude and cruel comment, which was said in a room full of people. She says that she began to grow concerned because she believed the women who heard the comment “somehow now think subconsciously or consciously that this kind of [misogynistic] violent, racist language could be overlooked and dismissed and that worse, that someone like me would just swallow it and shrink into the small space that I was allowed to occupy.”

Pak shared that she “fought to have this person removed,” and stopped showing up for work. She also refused mediation efforts, and stated that the situation “dragged on for months.” This, she says, was not “because I had an agenda or even courage, I just had this sinking feeling in my gut that I had to do this. It’s the kind of sinking feeling though that doesn’t give you strength or bravery, it was the kind that kept me in bed for a month, crying, scared and uncertain about everything.”

Ultimately, Pak says that her position was not considered and a “last attempt was made at ‘reconciliation’ as if that was even appropriate.” She stated that a “white male executive” wrote her a letter as a “final gesture” to remind her “that someone’s livelihood was on the line, that I was somehow responsible for that.” She says she never opened the letter.

Pak’s story comes after a white man murdered six Asian women in a mass shooting in Atlanta, Georgia. The tragic shooting is just another senseless incident of hate-crime violence against the Asian community, which has been on the rise over the past year. “These jokes are just the timid veneer that hide violence, hate, [misogyny], racism and white supremacy,” Pak wrote. “Our grandparents, our elders, our brothers and sisters are being spit on, punched, shot, attacked and murdered while these ‘jokes’ are being spit in our faces.”

“Be angry. Be f—ing enraged,” she added. “And then do something to repair this damage. Read, donate, volunteer, share and hold one another as we find our way through this pain.”