The Parable of the Nazi Pizza
by David Cole
June 18, 2019
Susan Pang was one of the most attractive women I’ve ever known. Born in Hong Kong but raised in the U.S., one parent was a right ol’ proper servant of ’Er Majesty’s bleedin’ government, and the other was a Hong Kong native. We never dated, so I can’t say that she was my Asian, but she was definitely Eurasian, although she looked so racially indeterminate as to defy classification. She was an actress, and I met her in 1993 when I was working in film and TV casting. She was very talented, and we quickly became good friends.
Time and again, when I tried to find acting work for her, I’d be stymied by production execs who’d ask, “But what IS she? Is she Asian? White? Part Hispanic? A little black?†I would explain to those dunces that mixed-race was the way of the future, but in spite of my best efforts, Susan never got any meaningful gigs (the one role I did get her she only landed because the director, American Indian Movement activist Russell Means, mistakenly thought she was Injun). Eventually, Susan gave up on acting. She married an Irish lad, and had five beautiful kids.
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