In any given interaction, there are two sides to the story. We're conditioned to believe this. It's a platitude -- a thing you say that immediately works as a kick in the gut to the first side. In Cross' case, that side was that he didn't fully believe her. He said that while he didn't remember the interaction with Yi, he admits that it could have happened. He's certainly not saying Yi is a liar. And then he dug deep.
In a follow-up explanation to his original explanation which was mostly "I'm not a racist, sorry if I was," Cross explained that he has never said "ching chong ching chong." Unless he did. But he'd only do that if he was playing his famous wacky racist Southern character. And then about two sentences later, he explained how he does the racist redneck character because he grew up in the South. Don't you get it? He knew racists in the South, so upon meeting an Asian American woman for the first time, he said racist stuff to her as a joke. Because [page missing].
I, of course, don't know David Cross or Charlyne Yi. I don't know the circumstances of their meeting, or how often Cross might pull out racism as a way of breaking the ice. But I do know that, in general, first meetings are never a good time to bust it out, because the person you're being racist to is never, ever going to find that funny. And it sucks because I want Cross to be a great guy and for this to be a terrible misunderstanding between the two of them (and now all of us). But as it sits in the world right now, it's as fucky as a Bangbus blooper reel.
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