On Campus Racism
by Latoya Peterson
Resist Racism just came out with a great piece on the impact of campus hate speech:
In the ten-year period from 1996-2006, 21 Cornell students committed suicide. Thirteen of them (approximately 62 percent) were of Asian descent. Additionally, there have been suicides at Cornell by non-students.
In at least four cases, people killed themselves by throwing themselves into the gorges.
Good fodder for comedy?
Here’s one Cornell blogger’s (D. Evan Mulvihill) take:
President David Skorton announced the plans for the construction of an Asian Community Center at a midday press conference today. The building is to be located directly adjacent to Uris Library on the Clocktower Side, and will be designed by the famous architect I. M. Pei.
“I believe that this building will dramatically reduce the amount of Asian suicides at Cornell,” Skorton announced. “We also plan to fill in the gorges with those chewy bubble tea orbs so that distraught students will have to rely on other methods.”
You can read the rest of the “satire” at Resist Racism or Angry Asian Man.
Obviously, there was a well-deserved backlash over this “lacist” (yes, he did!) piece. So what happens when the author gets called on the carpet? Yet another fake ass apology, followed by this wonderful comment by the post author:
# D. Evan Mulvihill Says:
April 8th, 2008 at 6:06 pm“you seem to think that asian american suicide rates are caused by unrealistic academic pressure.”
I meant the unrealistic academic pressure was coming from sources such as family and their immediate society, not by the colleges or universities themselves.
Clearly, this is a very emotional subject for a lot of Asian-Americans, and I didn’t realize that. I’m sorry that I played around with stereotypes, and made fun of an ethnic group. Apparently this isn’t enough for you guys–what more do you want? You are reading a lot more into this than is necessary. Please let it go.
I signed the note. Happy?
*sigh* Honestly, I don’t even have the strength to go on this one right now. However, I found this story of interest as I have been seeing a lot of this around lately. Now, I’ve never formally lived on a college campus - what little bit of undergrad I have completed was through commuter schools, where I wasn’t involved in the college culture. But I must admit, reading through Lisa Leong’s piece on the older “If it’s War the Asians want…” controversy illuminated the situation:
Reacting to Racism - Lisa Leong
Karson claims that his exaggerated column is a piece of satire because he wants to say, “Hey, it’s a joke.” But the only person who would find this funny is a white supremacist. Maybe that’s close to who Karson is, considering he was arrested for making threatening comments about being “angry enough to kill people” during a class discussion of Virginia Tech shooter Cho Seung Hui. It seems that Karson takes his own satire quite literally.
Feeling offended is a combination of disgust and outrage. I am disgusted that such an ignorant piece of journalism went to print. I am outraged by the “apology” delivered by the editors of the CU Campus Press. Their apology is half-hearted: “We apologize for any ambiguity of the satire that may have been misconstrued.” I wish the editors would have just taken a bite of humble pie and said, “We made a mistake.” There’s a difference between saying “Sorry to anyone who might have been offended” and “Sorry for being offensive.” The first is phony, the second is genuine. Campus Press offered a fake apology, the same way Karson’s column is fake satire. To read a real apology, see the public statement from G.P. “Bud” Peterson, Chancellor of CU.
Another side of my reaction was a lack of surprise. I’m not surprised that someone declared “War on Asians” because I’m no longer surprised that racism exists. In 2006, there was a similarly anti-Asian “satire” in my own school’s paper The Daily Bruin. The article “A Modest Proposal for an Immodest Proposition” was also controversial and inspired complaint letters. Again at CU’s Campus Press, Lauren E. Geary wrote a racist column against Hispanics called “No Hablo Ingles.” All these racist articles represent more than a recent trend of on-campus racism; they are the present form of a history of racism in America.
Leong goes on to list various other incidents of college press sanctioned racism. The highlights:
The Daily Bruin (UCLA) - A modest proposal for an immodest proposition (Satire, allegedly)
If you’re going to blame anyone, I say we blame the Asians.
I empathize with members of the Black Student Union and MEChA who spoke at the rally. As a fellow underrepresented minority at UCLA, I agree that it’s hard to find other white people I can identify with on a campus that feels more like Taipei than L.A.
Yes, white people are an underrepresented minority here at UCLA; while they make up 44 percent of the California population, white students only constitute 34 percent of UCLA’s student population.
Asian-Americans, on the other hand, make up only 12 percent of the state of California and 38 percent of UCLA students.
That’s 300 percent over-representation: Welcome to UCLAsian.
I agree with the chair of MEChA that the UC Regents are using unfair means to admit UC students. Using grades and test scores as a measure of academic success is clearly just a way to show preference to Asian-American students, who are better at both, and thus promote the status quo.
[…]
Still, we have an excellent opportunity to reform the admissions process to benefit underrepresented minorities without violating Prop. 209 and directly using race.
For example, we could easily decipher potential Asian-American applicants by checking what student groups they are involved in, such as Asian cultural organizations or Key Club.
I hear some liberal arts colleges accept head shots from applicants, and I think a similar program at UCLA would be monumentally successful at helping us weed out the young Maos and Kim Jongs from potential Mandelas, Lincolns and Estefans.
By keeping the Asian-American student numbers under control and more accurate to their representation in California, we can free up 26 percent of the student body for members of underrepresented groups.
The result is a win-win situation: fewer rolling backpacks, more diversity.
Campus Press (Colorado State) - No hablo ingles (Opinion piece)
[…] I did promise myself on that last day of Spanish class that I would never speak that language again, or any other language except English, for that matter. Little did I understand the concept of immigration and how it would affect me years down the road.
I grew up in the metropolitan suburbs of Washington, D.C., surrounded by politics and a multitude of ethnicities. Sure, there are your average brilliant Asians, successful blacks, and of course, millions of Hispanics flooding our area. Please don’t consider me a racist–I am nowhere near that.
And honestly, my problem is not really with the people themselves.
How many times have you walked into McDonald’s and not been able to order easily, or at all, because the person taking your order can’t understand English? Perhaps I’m the only one absolutely frustrated by the fact that we have Mexican grocery stores. And you know, I also think you shouldn’t be able to hold a driver’s license if you need a translator for the test. That thought makes me scared to get on the road. All the street signs are in English, and I know what you’re thinking: we should resign them in Spanish, too. No, we shouldn’t! Just like we shouldn’t allow our government to spend millions of dollars on re-signing all the metro stops in D.C. in English and Spanish. I’m also irritated by the fact that more money was put into ESL classes than art classes. Why are we accommodating?
(An aside - I love how people tend to preface racist statements with some variation of “I’m not racist, but” …I kind of like that though, it works for me. It’s like a little flag pops up, reading “brace yourself for some ignorant shit!” At least I’m prepared.)
Patrick Lee, also of the AZN Network blog, responds to Max Carson’s piece, but I think it applies to all the articles discussed here.
Did he write the piece just to get some attention? Or does he really espouse the racist, narrow-minded and alarmingly animalistic ideas in the article? I hesitate even to call it an article, because it is more like the product of pouring one’s vomit into a bag and tying it up with ribbon, in an attempt to cover up the crude contents: it’s vomit-in-bag, in written form.
All this vomit in a bag is stinking up college newspapers. When is someone going to actually notice that these pieces contain nothing but bile?
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of 
DivergentDana wrote:
“Clearly, this is a very emotional subject for a lot of Asian-Americans, and I didn’t realize that.”
How do you not realize that suicide is “a very emotional subject”?
Posted 24 Apr 2008 at 7:28 am ¶
Mary wrote:
“I’m also irritated by the fact that more money was put into ESL classes than art classes. ”
What the hell? He’s angry that people can’t take his Big Mac order in English (OH NOES!!11!) but doesn’t want to pay for ESL classes? I know, I know, analyzing the logic of a racist is an exercise in futility, but still. That’s not satire, that’s just snotty xenophobic whining. Let me get out my violin.
It’s the job of the campus newspaper editors to know the difference. But you know what’s scary? A lot of kids working for campus newspapers are journalism majors themselves, presumably destined to enter the media for real after they graduate…
Posted 24 Apr 2008 at 8:01 am ¶
ceecee wrote:
I stopped reading my campus newspaper because of some of the offensive editorials, and it’s frustrating to me that they cloak their racist ideologies under the right to free speech…I kept on asking myself who approves these articles???
Posted 24 Apr 2008 at 8:17 am ¶
different Ali wrote:
“I’m also irritated by the fact that more money was put into ESL classes than art classes. Why are we accommodating? ”
Wait wait wait, I thought she WANTED them to learn English! You know because then she wouldn’t have to be hasseled by people not speaking our official language.
oh wait…
Posted 24 Apr 2008 at 8:43 am ¶
Faith wrote:
I’m not sure about the other newspapers but the one at Case Western is actually run by an editor who isn’t a journalism major. Every other week, the most offensive column is published by some freshman poli sci major. He always writes the most racist, sexist, xenophobic shit around. He wrote an entire column about how blacks and women need to be happy with the status we have and how we need to leave white, privileged boys like him alone. How dare we want equal opportunities! He even resorted to the old reverse racism line and claimed that the political correctness is rampant that people like Bill Cosby just can’t get a fair shake when they talk about how deviant black people are. *rolls eyes* He also write about how our campus is apparently anti-semitic just because we have speakers on campus every once in a while who are critical of Israeli policy.
I use to wonder how that bile got a regular column too. When I found out that a non-journalism major was running the paper, that partly answered my question. However, it still makes me wonder how the editor at the paper doesn’t throw up every time she has to publish that column. I know the paper is suppose to publish different POVs but there’s different POVs and then there’s “pouring one’s vomit into a bag and tying it up with ribbon, in an attempt to cover up the crude contents: it’s vomit-in-bag, in written form.”
So maybe all of these newspapers are being run by people who little or no journalism experience and who apparently, also have little sensitivity towards the racism PoC face on American campuses. Also, I think some of this is driven by the desire to increase readership. I think I’ve heard that readership for the Case Observer has gone up since that God awful column was published. *sigh* Makes me wonder how many people on college campuses these literary whiners (I refuse to call them columnists) speak for. Ultimately, I think all of these columns expose the “white entitlement” that unfortunately, so many students still have.
Posted 24 Apr 2008 at 9:43 am ¶
Bizonka wrote:
“…I think a similar program at UCLA would be monumentally successful at helping us weed out the young Maos and Kim Jongs from potential Mandelas, Lincolns and Estefans.”
Wow. Just wow.
Posted 24 Apr 2008 at 9:48 am ¶
Feminist Punk! wrote:
Bitter white people crack me up. Oh I’m sorry, was that racist*?
I’m so sorry. Now, get over it.
*note the sarcasm*
Posted 24 Apr 2008 at 10:15 am ¶
Eva wrote:
I wonder if anyone ever made fun of the number of white NYU students who committed suicide a few years ago.
Posted 24 Apr 2008 at 10:39 am ¶
NancyP wrote:
Is there some regional variation in anti-Asian racism? I don’t get the impression that there are anti-Asian diatribes in the student newspapers out here in the flyover states. (admittedly, I don’t peruse them on a weekly basis). The average local a**hole targets blacks or (Mexican) immigrants.
Posted 24 Apr 2008 at 10:42 am ¶
marge twain wrote:
People claim to be joking when they want to offend without consequence. The fake apology just adds insult to injury. Usually the same people consider themselves free speech warriors representing the silent majority. So brave!(now THAT”S sarcasm)
I found this very hard to finish reading. Why do universities allow this kind of hate speech? Have there been repercussions in any of these cases that anyone knows of?
Posted 24 Apr 2008 at 11:17 am ¶
Anonymiss wrote:
Another case of White arrogance and false entitlement. This gets a big WTF.
Posted 24 Apr 2008 at 11:36 am ¶
lemure wrote:
The only thing that surprises me is that this kind of “commentary”/”satire”/racist bile has actually gotten worse since I graduated college. I graduated from Upenn almost 10 years and wrote for the DP. There were constant editorials of “Why do all the Black kids sit together in the cafeteria?” nature. I still fail to understand what is so gratifying about shit talking and mocking entire races in the name of being “Un PC” then telling everyone to lighten up and offering half assed apologies. When these insecure bigots stop falling back on “jokes about ethnicities and races other than my own are so hilarious”, maybe I’d start finding them actually funny. Assholes like these grow up to be Sarah Silverman, ugh.
Posted 24 Apr 2008 at 11:44 am ¶
Blue Steel wrote:
@ lemure
co-sign on your Sarah Silverman comment.
Posted 24 Apr 2008 at 12:03 pm ¶
Keith wrote:
Good job on compiling all of these articles from around the country. As a Colorado State grad, I must protest that labeling of the No Hablo Ingles article, its actual source is from the University of Colorado, not CSU.
We have our own problems at CSU and adding the CU hate speech to ours is a little overwhelming and unfair.
Posted 24 Apr 2008 at 1:59 pm ¶
Bobby wrote:
Racism in many ways has literally become a joke.
Posted 24 Apr 2008 at 2:46 pm ¶
Kendra wrote:
@ lemure
I concur. Oh, and don’t forget about Lisa Lampanelli. -_-
Oye, very few in Hollywood really manage to cover up their racist ideologies.
Posted 24 Apr 2008 at 3:28 pm ¶
John wrote:
Anyone who really believes these kinds of comments is a cultural dinosaur.
I have heard very nasty and bigoted things from all people in all walks of life, and each time it re-enforces my idea that their mental growth is has been stunted by their own passion of ignorance.
On the upside, it helps to weed out those of lesser intelligence, thereby increasing the chance of ratcheting up the intellect of future generations.
Posted 24 Apr 2008 at 5:04 pm ¶
Arturo wrote:
I think one big question to be asked here is, how diverse are these newspaper staffs?
Posted 24 Apr 2008 at 5:50 pm ¶
Black Ivy wrote:
I just emailed this article to a diverse (blacks, indians, east asians, and whites, males and females) group of my friends who all attended the same Ivy League University. One, (white male republican) responded with the following sarcastic comment:
“This is outrageous. We need to set aside a $15M fund to combat this bigotry, have some more safe spaces on campus, and censor our college newspapers.
By the way [my name], when you get a chance can you post some more links to whatwhitepeoplelike.com? Thanks!”
What do you think about his accusation? Are their parallels between a site that mocks suicide and one that jokes about yuppie culture? I think so.
Oh, and did I mention that this guy is a former president of our HIGHLY acclaimed paper?
Posted 24 Apr 2008 at 6:57 pm ¶
Black Ivy wrote:
Also, why does it always come back to free speech for conservatives/racists? Last time I checked, holding people accountable for their actions and publicly denouncing peoples opinion does not amount to censorship. And if the University (a private institution) wants to set certain standards for their papers, they should have the right to do so. They are there to teach in more than one capacity. There is a difference between an opinion and a racist ideology.
Posted 24 Apr 2008 at 7:00 pm ¶
Clara wrote:
Wow. ..
Hi everyone, I’m an undergrad at Cornell University and I am deeply involved in A3C (Asian/ Asian American Center), which is the student organization that pushed for the creation and implementation of the Asian/Asian American center, which Evan Mulvihill ridiculed in his anti-Asian “satire” piece. As an avid reader of Racialicious, it’s was definitely a pleasant surprise to see Evan’s blog entries featured here. I only hope that the next time my university is mentioned, it isn’t from associations with anti-Asian sentiments.
It took about a decade of student advocacy to get Cornell’s administration to agree to the community center. The day before Evan’s “satire” came out, we had just successfully put on a community forum, in which the top administrators (the President, the VP, the Dean of Undergraduate Students, and more) came specifically to talk about the community center and to talk about the state of As/As Am students at Cornell. Plus, Cornell had just hosted the ECAASU, the largest As Am student conference on the east coast. To put it shortly, it was exciting to be Asian American at Cornell.
And then this article came out. Let me tell you, it was a huge blow to see a fellow Cornell student ridiculing something we put our hearts and souls into. After SO MUCH effort, after SO MUCH struggle with the administration, we see disrespect from our fellow student.
However, I do have to give Evan credit: he eventually saw the error of his ways. He posted a much more sincere apology (here: http://blogs.kitschmag.com/watch/2008/04/16/no-more-jokes/) and he really does seem shaken by the experience. He asked to meet with members of A3C (the group behind the community center) to talk about what he did wrong. Some members did meet with him, and from what I understand, he listened, and learned some things about As/As Ams. I hope he at least learned that you do not going messing around with race without repercussions.
So, Latoya, thank you for highlighting this in your post. It really is disgusting that college students, and people in general, dismiss racism so easily under the cover of humor. Hope everyone doesn’t mind this babble from someone close to the source.
Posted 24 Apr 2008 at 8:11 pm ¶
Clara wrote:
Oh yeah, just to warn you, the editor’s note tacked at the end of Evan’s second apology (which I linked to in an earlier comment) is problematic in so many ways. It sort of undermines all the justifiably angry responses to Evan’s initial post and everything we’re trying to do. Just a head’s up.
Posted 24 Apr 2008 at 8:44 pm ¶
meownette wrote:
@ eva, #8:
As a graduate of NYU a couple years back, I can attest to the gross fact that yes, there were mocking undercurrents when students there killed themselves. I don’t think any of it appeared in any official capacity (i.e., the campus newspaper), but in the general “snarkiness” (god, I’m starting to hate that word) of students. Notably, any snide comments did not pertain to the students’ ethnic backgrounds…probably because they were, mostly, white.
Posted 24 Apr 2008 at 11:35 pm ¶
Jake wrote:
As a one-time college newspaper columnist myself, it was my experience that the primary goal of said columnists was to get attention. There were a few people (like myself) who tended to focus on specific issues and getting the message out, but most people were “look at me! look at me!”, trying to be as outlandish, gross, or “controversial” as they could manage.
Posted 25 Apr 2008 at 12:09 am ¶
seriousl wrote:
My college has a website run by students called ______ confessional.com
Its an elite women’s only college and suppose to liberal/open-minded. Imagine my surprise when I found out the anti-east Asian comments left by students. There seems to be racism running through our campus.
Posted 25 Apr 2008 at 12:32 pm ¶
lunanoire wrote:
white students can’t have it both ways- either choose affirmative action, which increases the #s in some groups, or abolish it, which increases the #s in other groups. maybe that’s why anecdotally some ppl don’t have a problem w/ legacy admissions. it’s kinda “strange” how east/south asian/asian-am students are “overrepresented” in colleges, but not as CEOs and presidents of fortune 500 companies.
Posted 27 Apr 2008 at 10:18 pm ¶
AJ wrote:
Re: #8
I wonder if anyone ever made fun of the number of white NYU students who committed suicide a few years ago
Yes they did. It was as inappropriate but people did make fun of it.
Also The Daily Bruin (UCLA) - A modest proposal for an immodest proposition (Satire, allegedly)
In general, anything with the phrase “a modest proposal in it is a satire. I’m not saying its not offensive, I’m just saying that the allegedly is unfair. Anything with the phrase “modest proposal” references Jonathan Swifts satire from 1729 in which he (satirically) suggested eating babies.
Posted 27 Apr 2008 at 11:34 pm ¶
CuntLovin wrote:
Yes anytime someone prefaces a statement with “I’m not racist…” “I’m not homophobic…” “I have nothing against non-white people…”( The later is sadly and seriously how my future brother and father in law preface many many statements)….you know a doozy is coming
@Faith…seriously it was not until I moved to Canada that in any institution or medium was I exposed to a voice critical of Israeli policy…I seriously considered myself an intelligent individual but it was never an arena that I thought debate existed in until I moved…(I thank God I moved)…so it does not surprise me one damne bit to hear that….
@Nancy P…there is lots and lots of anti-Asian racism in Canada…I find racism here in whole new ways because of the population differences…whats boggling my mind the most right now is how angry people are the some people want the Candian national anthem in Hindu…so wait ‘immigrant population’s want to be able to participate with pride in the country (something they are often unfairly acccused of not doing) and your upset about that (logic being that no where else in the world is a countrys national anthem available outside the national languages…so because no one else does it, we shouldnt either????)
Posted 28 Apr 2008 at 1:33 pm ¶
CuntLovin wrote:
**Hindi…damn if the u isnt right next to i on the keyboard…
Posted 28 Apr 2008 at 1:35 pm ¶
CuntLovin wrote:
http://radioequalizer.blogspot.com/2007/09/bruce-allen-sikh-headgear-flap-cknw.html
This is racism in Canada…different but the same
Posted 28 Apr 2008 at 2:04 pm ¶
Dexter wrote:
Anyone visit a UC campus lately? Take a look around, you’ll see the facts. Clearly there is something wrong with the UC admissions system. With stereotypes and borderline racism aside, I completely agree with these editorials and empathize with the academically competitive blacks, hispanics/latinos and Native Americans. Many need to realize that just like some feel angry about being stereotyped, there’s a whole lot of others who are pissed about not being given a fair chance. This is only the beginning: Education leads to careers. If these practices continue, there will clearly be a shift in balance in the workforce.
Posted 21 Jul 2008 at 12:40 am ¶