Jay Leno apologizes for past racist jokes targeting Asians

The Asian-American community is still grieving and reeling from a shooting at an Atlanta-area spa last week that killed eight people, including six women of Asian descent. While federal hate-crime charges have not yet been filed, fear felt within the community is at an all-time high.

With that as the climate's backdrop, Jay Leno issued an apology for the insensitive jokes targeting the Asian community over his decades-long career in a joint press release with Guy Aoki, leader of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans (h/t Variety): 

"At the time I did those jokes, I genuinely thought them to be harmless. I was making fun of our enemy North Korea, and like most jokes, there was a ring of truth to them. At the time, there was a prevailing attitude that some group is always complaining about something, so don't worry about it. Whenever we received a complaint, there would be two sides to the discussion: Either 'We need to deal with this' or 'Screw 'em if they can’t take a joke.' Too many times I sided with the latter even when in my heart I knew it was wrong. I am issuing this apology. I do not consider this particular case to be another example of cancel culture but a legitimate wrong that was done on my part. MANAA has been very gracious in accepting my apology. I hope that the Asian American community will be able to accept it as well, and I hope I can live up to their expectations in the future."

Variety also noted that MANAA first began campaigning for Leno to acknowledge his wrongs 15 years ago.

Leno, 70, began his career as a standup comedian before famously hosting The Tonight Show with Jay Leno for 1,801 episodes from 1994 to 2013. The Primetime Emmy winner kept his hosting skills sharp by helming the Jay Leno's Garage documentary series from 2015-20. Most recently, has a recurring role on Tim Allen's Last Man Standing television series.