"fine performances all around" and that Fishburne and Bassett "lend fine support in utterly believable roles". Racial issues Chang called Dylan's father "a stiff Asian stereotype", while Mohan of The Oregonian found it contradictory for an anti-racist film to contain such depiction. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian even claimed that the line "If you can barely beat a little black girl" (spoken by Dylan's father) signifies that Atchison "thinks it's all right to bring in racism by making the Asians the racists". Metro Silicon Valleys Richard von Busack commented that "[s]tepping around black stereotypes, the film squishes its two left feet right in the mire of Asian stereotyping". Beth Accomando of KPBS also criticized Dylan and his father's portrayal as "painful cliches", while Schager of Slant Magazine found it not authentic, even likening Dylan's father "dictatorial" style to Mao Zedong. Scholars Charise Pimentel and Cathleen Sawyer from the Texas State University published an article titled "Akeelah and the Bee: Inspirational Story of African-American Intellect and Triumph or Racist Rhetoric Served Up On Another Platter?" on the May 2011 issue of journal Multicultural Perspectives. On a critical discourse analysis, the authors argue that despite appearing to be an "innocent enough" film, it has major approaches that make it racist. First, it implies that African-Americans need to be rescued by others; second, depicts African-American communities as "marked by homelessness, poverty, criminality, unemployment, and remnants of gang activity"; third, indicates that black people usually only achieve success through sports by "linking the very essence of Akeelah's phenomenal ability to spell to her rhythmic abilities"; and shows that African-Americans only can succeed outside their communities, "far from the oppressive clutches of their own". Linder, on her September 2011 paper "Spelling Out Racial Difference: Moving Beyond the Inspirational Discourses in Akeelah and the Bee", also criticized it saying the film "acts as a platform for a racial melodrama through which ideals of whiteness are reinforced and strengthened". Using Linda Williams' categories of what constitutes a racial melodrama, Linder argues that it is described as an "inspirational" film because of "[its] portrayal of Akeelah's victimization by the black community that surrounds her" and of redemption only achieved "through the idealized discourse of young people's educational success as defined by dominant (white) culture". Linder said characters "are mostly represented as having 'no interest in escape' from societal oppressions and limitations" and that "there is no sign throughout