Woman in Viral BBC Newsbeat Professor Video Is Actually His Wife

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 | March 14, 2017 | By Steven Lerner

All across the web, viral videos come and go. But a recent video from BBC Newsbeat that originally went viral for a hilarious reason is now going viral again by shedding light on a racial stereotype.

On March 10, the BBC interviewed International Relations professor Robert Kelly about South Korea in a live video feed from his home office. All of a sudden, his two young children interrupted the interview. The video of the funny and adorable moment soon went viral.

Our favourite live TV moment of the week by far ?? pic.twitter.com/GXSCUl5hYI

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— BBC Newsbeat (@BBCNewsbeat) March 10, 2017

At the conclusion of the video, an Asian woman enters the office and quickly ushers the young children away. Most people online assumed that this woman was the professor’s housekeeper or nanny.

However, it turns out that the Asian woman — Jung-a Kim — was actually professor Kelly’s wife.

Did you come to a wrong conclusion about this sweet video? Lol…we can laugh it off, learn about our biases, grow smarter.

— Maria Chong (@mariachong) March 10, 2017

People on social media should not assume that this woman was a housekeeper based on her race. This stereotype is one of many assumptions that people need to stop making about Asian Americans.

In 2013, blogger Katemelon wrote an article on Kinja asserting that harmful stereotypes perpetrated by the media are to blame for many assumptions attributed to Asian women.

“The stereotypical Asian woman is riddled with intricacies and contradictions. (But also flat and static!) On one hand, we are the nerds who face social segregation, because we all are good at Math. On the other hand, Asian women are the trophies of Asian fetishists, because apparently, we are submissive, accommodating, and have magic vaginas.”

Hopefully, our society can move beyond biases and learn to treat each other fairly. We are making progress towards unity. As in the case of professor Robert Kelly and Jung-a Kim, there are more interracial marriages that are helping people get rid of stereotypes.

1) It's his wife, not a nanny or maid
2) She has a name, Jung-a Kim
3) Cute kids
4) Life happens ❤️
5) ??????? pic.twitter.com/3NFVATjy50

— Maria Chong (@mariachong) March 10, 2017

This story will certainly change the way you look at viral videos.

(H/T: Huffington Post)