The city's Department of Public Works created a totally bizarre and definitely racist video about—of all things—reclaimed water.
It features a white dude dressed up like a geisha, mimicking a Japanese accent. Why the Los Angeles Department of Public Works needed to make a video about reclaimed water in a Japanese Garden in the first place is not quite clear (and the video has since been taken down). But based on clips we watched via CBS Los Angeles, it's obvious the video went way off the rails.
Like that notorious video by former UCLA student Alexandra Wallace it makes fun of Asians and mocks their accent—except that this video was created by a city agency and funded by taxpayer dollars, CBS Los Angeles reports.
The video was created as part of a program called L.A. CityWorks that airs video on the city-owned Channel 35. The project costs $48,000 a year in taxpayer dollars. Some of the videos, like the "History of Trash" and "L.A. CityWorks Rap" can be viewed on YouTube, too.
Once CBS brought up the video to the city agency, it was yanked down from YouTube and an agency spokeswoman apologized. Cora Jackson-Fossett, a spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Public Works, told CBS Los Angeles, "We apologize profusely that we missed the mark totally. We made a mistake. We’re extremely sorry. It was an attempt at humor that failed."
The agency says all the videos that get made on the taxpayer dime are going to get more scrutiny.
You can watch clips of the video in this news report:
