Singer and actress Miley Cyrus arrives at the 66th annual Golden Globe awards in Beverly Hills, California January 11, 2009. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Disney teen idol Miley Cyrus has been accused of taunting and mocking Asians by making slant-eye poses in a personal photograph with her friends.
A snapshot of Cyrus, 16, best known as the star of the Disney Channel show “Hannah Montana”, and friends posing with an Asian friend and pulling their eyes sideways surfaced on the Internet this week.
The OCA, a national organization in the United States dedicated to advancing the social and political welfare of Asian Pacific Americans, called on the singer-actress to apologize.
The group said the image “falls within a long and unfortunate history of people mocking and denigrating individuals of Asian descent.”
“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 friends,” OCA executive director George Wu in a statement issued on Monday.
Wu said the fact that an Asian friend was included in the photo “does not make it acceptable.”
Representatives for Cyrus did not immediately return calls for comment on Tuesday.
Cyrus, one of the biggest teen stars in the world, apologized to fans last year for a Vanity Fair photo shoot which showed her apparently wearing little but a satin bedsheet. She also came under fire in 2008 for personal pictures showing her in her underwear.
Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte
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