This past Saturday, the outspoken comedian Margaret Cho took Swarthmore by storm in a sold out LPAC show funded by the Cooper Grant. Cho, a Korean-American queer woman, spent time before her performance discussing issues of gender, race and sexuality in a Q&A session attended by students from the Nations and Migrations and the Introduction to Asian American Literature classes.

“I’m a stand up comedian, I’m an author, I’m an activist, I’m a director,” Cho said by way of introduction, “I do so many things because I don’t limit myself. If I want to do something, I go for it.”

This is the same passion that Cho credits for her successful career, despite early admonishments that “Koreans don’t do that” and the racism, sexism and homophobia she encountered.

Cho said her path was doubly hard as a minority without “having any role models to inspire me.” She now hopes that “people look to me as somebody that really paved the way for them.”

Cho began by talking about her writing process and how her current blogs on her Web site (www.margaretcho.com), the Huffington Post and CNN.com, help her generate ideas for shows. She added half-joking that “people seek me out to write for them because then they think, ‘Well, if we get her, we don’t have to hire any more Asians, women or gays.”

A passionate political activist who was campaigning for Barack Obama before her peformance, Cho expressed excitement at how topics of gender and race have been brought to the forefront of the political arena with the recent election.

Cho explained that her perception of America as “more sexist than racist” helped cement her decision to support Obama as someone who could win. Cho felt that currently there is a “fear among white people about being openly racist about black people” but that Hilary Clinton continues to endure the media scrutiny of her emotional state because sexism is not similarly condemned.

Cho highlighted her frustration with the media’s assumption that women of color are faced with the dilemma of voting along race or gender lines.

“I found this idea very insulting, because straight white men are allowed to vote on issues. They’re not thinking about their gender or their race. Why don’t we have the luxury of that too?” Cho said.

Influenced by memories of growing up in San Francisco in the aftermath of the assassination of openly gay Supervisor of San Francisco Harvey Milk, Cho was politically active for most of her life but initially hesitated to express her views through comedy.

“I was surrounded by straight white guys and I thought they’re the people that should be talking about politics, not me,” Cho said,

This changed as Cho grew older and eventually came out as queer. Now she is known for the often controversial but always sharp political and cultural commentary that flavors her comedy.

However, Cho still struggles with “the sting of non-inclusion,” such as when her performance at the 2004 Democratic National Convention was canceled because her “voice would invite controversy.”

Despite these instances, Cho hopes that her activism will inspire others, especially minorities, to find their own political voice.

“If you’re a minority, you have a responsibility to yourself and to the future to become an activist,” Cho said. “You can’t be just an observer at this point. If we want to go forward, if we want to truly experience what it is to be American, we have to get involved.”

Cho also spent time dissecting the less overt brand of racism that she feels Asian-Americans are more likely to encounter. This racism, she said, is difficult to identify and therefore difficult to discuss and move past.

One example she raised was the emphasis the media placed on the race of the Virginia Tech massacre perpetrator Seung-Hui Cho, “implying somehow his race, his Asianness was somehow a contributing factor to his craziness,” Cho said.

A week later, Cho felt the backlash when her comedy special aired on television and people complained that it was “bad taste to show us any Chos.”

Still, leave it to Cho to be able to find the funnier side of being a minority comedian. Cho declared to roars of laughter that “I am a member of so many minorities that I can say what I want and white people cannot say a thing about it!”

More seriously, she said that being a minority in Hollywood keeps her grounded and allows her “to speak on issues and say jokes without having anything happen.”

However, she admitted that there exists the potential for comedians to be “co-opted by the mainstream audience to get their message across.”

“It’s like, straight white men are not allowed to be racist or sexist anymore, so let’s get somebody who can be,” Cho said, specifically referencing comedians Carlos Mencia and Sarah Silverman.

Cho herself strikes a balance between embracing her role as a minority comedian without feeling limited to talking about these subjects by rejecting the “PC idea that you have to whitewash everything.”

“Why is my experience less valid because I’m Asian-American? That’s bullshit,” Cho said, “Sometimes people criticize me when I do my mother’s voice in a very thick Korean accent. They say, how can you do a stereotype like that? Yeah, but my mother really talks like that!”

Cho feels that editing her comedy this way is misrepresentative. “That’s not what real life is, that’s not real experience, that’s not art,” she said.

Cho wrapped up the session by explaining that while her comedy can get “a little darker or raunchy or graphic,” her main goal is always making “people feel good about their experience no matter what.”

Judging by the laughter that kept the theater seats rocking at her show later that night, Margaret Cho definitely succeeded.