CBS Los Angeles has dug up a controversial video through which a white man places on a kimono and paints his face white like a geisha, talking in an exaggerated stereotype of a Japanese accent. The kicker: it used to be funded and produced with the aid of the town.

The City of Los Angeles Division of Public Works it appears spends $forty eight,000 per 12 months on a program known as “L.A. CityWorks,” which airs on town-owned channel. The controversial short, which some have known as “racist” and “insensitive,” used to be a part of this city-funded initiative.

The video, shot at a Eastern Backyard in Los Angeles, depicts the pass-dressing “geisha” man speaking in a mock Japanese accent. “The Eastern water park is a beauliful, beauliful site,” he said with a unusual misappropriation of the stereotypical Asian mispronunciation of “R” sounds as “L.” The actor leads two interested males on with a coy, flirty attitude, earlier than in some way fulfilling the video’s purpose: explaining how the Jap Backyard makes use of recycled water.

CBS spoke with Greg Kimura, the top of LA’s Jap American National Museum, who cringed upon viewing the video, calling it “just bad,” “offensive” and “embarrassing to even watch.”

“It brings back the entire worst stereotypes,” he continued. “The accents, the whiteface. I’m embarrassed for everyone who’s involved in this. If there’s a remedy to this, it could be something like an apology and taking it down instantly.”

After the investigative reporter brought the video to the town’s attention, it was in an instant yanked from YouTube. The department’s spokeswoman Cora Jackson-Fossett told CBS: “We apologize profusely that we overlooked the mark totally. We made a mistake. We’re extraordinarily sorry. It was an try at humor that failed.”

Any further, CBS reports, metropolis officials plan to review future movies with an in depth eye.

Watch the report beneath, by means of CBS-2 Los Angeles:

[h/t Michelle Fields]
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