Queer Keanu: Race, Sexuality and the Politics of - Whoa is (Not) Me

words of Reeves’ himself, “People, when they heard (the name) Keanu Reeves, they
didn’t know what I was [this last phrase accompanied by Reeves physically gesturing air
quotes]. What ever that means. I’m not touching that.” Then Leno replies off camera,
“What is a Keanu?” By “not touching that” Reeves manages to mobilize the same
strategies he uses to shape public perception of his sexuality to mold understandings of
his race. Just as Reeves resists naming his sexuality, he also manages to invoke race
while studiously avoiding words like Asian or Hawaiian or race. For a mainstream
audience, the story merely recounts the misdirected enthusiasms of a Hollywood agent
and racial overtones are gently muted in ethnic difference or individual eccentricity. He is
able to utilize maximum play in his racial identity. Thus he is able to make statements
calling himself a “middle­class white kid” while interview after interview states that he is
European, Chinese and Hawaiian. Like Reeves sexuality, his multiraciality seems to
reside in the absences, in the elipses, of his star persona.
This passive passing, this failure to force a racialized reading of Reeves body both
interrogates and undermines racial identifications. If Reeves is ambivalent about his
racial assignment, Asian American fan discourse seems equally ambivalent about
Reeves. The online discussions often focus on the right to categorize Reeves as Asian
American. When the question of what “qualifies” as Asian is posed on on­ line forums
such as ii Stix, a volley of responses follows. On the Asian American interactive site,
Goldensea, there is even poll set up breaking down Asian­ness into a series of questions.