Gronk Red Symons Seriously Asks Podcast Host Beverley Wang “Are You Yellow?”

Symons was invited to have the chat on account of the fact he appeared on Hey Hey It’s Saturday‘s infamous blackface episode. That very, very bad piece of television content was extensively covered in the first episode of Wang’s podcast, which aired late last month. 

So, the groundwork was set for the two to have a frank discussion about perceptions of race in modern Australian society. The thing is, Symons started things off by saying he had the idea for an ABC podcast focussing on similar issues to Wang’s, and that he’d call it… What’s The Deal With Asians?

When presented with that absolute howler of a title, Wang invited Symons to share his opinion. After saying the question was a “just a useful, general question about the nature of our culture” that could spur discussion, he asked Wang “are you yellow?”

Wang would have been forgiven for noping out then and there, but she persisted with Symons’ baffling line of enquiry. He went on to assume the surname ‘Wang’ meant the host’s family was from China, when they’ve lived in Taiwan for 400 years. (Wang herself was raised in Canada, before moving to Australia in 2009.)

Symonds then asked which of Cantonese or Mandarin they speak in Taiwan – the answer is Taiwanese with a smattering of Mandarin, btw – before Wang retorted “in Canada where I’m from, they speak English and French.”

In one of the podcast’s tensest moments, he said she was probably from the west coast of Canada. Wang asked why he thought that, only to be told “because it’s closer to Asia.” She actually had to tell Symonds to not get so defensive. 

It spiralled out from there, as Symons asked her if Beverley was really her birth name, and called the Hey Hey incident “alleged” blackface. Again, all of this was pushed through the ABC’s official channels.

You better believe Symons’ backwards BS has been roundly rebuked by damn near everyone who’s had the misfortune of listening to it:

unprepared unfunny unethical interviewer @RedSymons faced with whip smart gracious guest @beverleywang who just wants 2 talk about her show https://t.co/ItTXu2V57t

— Julia Zemiro (@julia_zemiro) June 16, 2017

skipped halfway thru red symons interview to see if it got any better but accidentally hit the exact moment he says ‘alleged blackface’

— Shaad D’Souza (@shaaddsouza) June 16, 2017

Chrissakes. When a leading ABC radio personality asks an Asian colleague “are you yellow?” we have a problem https://t.co/cS2ms3mxLb

— Marc Fennell (@MarcFennell) June 15, 2017

If you happened to walk past my desk last week at @RadioNational and my jaw was scraping on the floor this iv is why https://t.co/9CiRswOvSB

— Jess O’Callaghan (@jessocallaghan) June 15, 2017

still cannot get over the hideous behaviour of Red Symons in this interview with deadset pro and most patient person ever @beverleywang https://t.co/qhkwNGI4WS

— Bec Shaw (@Brocklesnitch) June 16, 2017

Wang herself commented after the interview went live, echoing the sentiment that this kind of shit happens all the time.

He’s right. https://t.co/ya5vYYeODY

— beverley wang (@beverleywang) June 15, 2017

Fortunately, It’s Not A Race is just getting started, so there’s still plenty of time to field guests who aren’t so massively bung.