This person shares a respectable response and call for action: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/notes/layhannara-tep/in-response-to-asians-in-the-library/10150425624460084
My question is: what kind of action should UCLA follow? Here is a snippet of what "Layhannara Tep" on Facebook suggests:
Hence, as a community, we demand the following:
1) We call for a public apology from Alexandra Wallace. Her words and actions are not in line with the UCLA Student Code of Conduct, which states:
“The University strives to create an environment that fosters the values of mutual respect and tolerance and is free from discrimination based on race, ethnicity, sex, religion, sexual orientation, disability, age, and other personal characteristics."[2]
2) We call for UCLA to take the appropriate disciplinary measures befitting of Wallace’s violation against the UCLA Student Code of Conduct and UCLA’s Principle of Community, which states:
“We do not tolerate acts of discrimination, harassment, profiling or other harm to individuals on the basis of expression of race, color, ethnicity, gender, age, disability, religious beliefs, political preference, sexual orientation, gender identity, citizenship, or national origin among other personal characteristics. Such acts are in violation of UCLA’s Principles of Community and subject to sanctions according to campus policies governing the conduct of students, staff and faculty.” [3]
3) We call for UCLA to issue a statement addressing this incident. UCLA must demonstrate its commitment to a culture of diversity, respect, tolerance, and acceptance for all communities by standing against such acts.
4) We call for the UCLA Academic Senate to pass a requirement in the general education curriculum grounded in the UCLA Principles of Community.
I am sure UCLA must have an established process for handling cases of student misconduct regarding violations of this section of the Student Code. More than likely, the remedies are educational in nature. I think they should follow established policy.
ReplyDeleteOn a separate note, the student who posted this moronic rant is the personification of the "dumb blond" stereotype. Her statements about American manners are embarrassing, to say the least. Her extremely ego-centric comments about the "Tsunami or whatever" demonstrate a complete lack of empathy and understanding of this terrible human tragedy.
There should be workshops for Asian students to learn about how to cope with issues of race. These workshops allow for Asian student to express there concerns regarding the racial tension. Students should have access to counselors and experts that will aid them in seeking comfort. This incident is a example of the many racial issues that occur on PWI campuses.
ReplyDeleteI've heard some discussions about how unlikely it is that one would make or find an overtly racist video like this about African Americans, but such a video has been made about Asians, and you can easily find overt anti-Asian and anti-Latina/o rants expressed online. I can think of three reasons why this blatant anti-Asian sentiment was expressed online in a video so freely: 1. Asian American and Latina/o communities are still seen as perpetual foreigners. 2. Race is still talked about in a Black/White paradigm, rendering Asian American and Pacific Islanders, Native People, and Latina/o's invisible. 3. Asians are seen as culturally passive, faceless masses, voiceless people, politically not empowered. I think it is clear from the video responses, blog posts, and facebook/twitter activism that Asian Americans and anti-racist activists will raise their voices to speak up against such overt racism. I hope this is a turning point for Alexandra Wallace to examine her white privilege and racism, so that she might transform her privilege and power into anti-racist social action.
ReplyDeleteShe recently decided to stop attending classes at UCLA for personal safety reasons.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2011/03/19/2011-03-19_alexandra_wallace_ucla_student_who_created_offensive_viral_video_withdrawing_fro.html
According to IPEDS data, UCLA is comprised of 38% Asian, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander students and 33% White students. At UC Berkeley, the numbers are 40% Asian, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander and 30% White (Hispanic and African American students were also underrepresented proportionally to census data). Thus, I'm not sure that UCLA should still be considered a PWI.
ReplyDeleteWhen looking at racial statistics for colleges (especially public ones), I think it is important to keep in mind state population. According to census data, California is only comprised of 12.7% Asian and 0.4 Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander.
It should be noted that under the umbrella of Asian, numerous different people groups are represented, including people from India. On the same hand, White is not synonymous with Caucasian as it is inclusive of North African and Middle Eastern people.
I would be interested to hear what others thought about the high percentage of Asian students at the UC and other schools. I really don’t have a problem with it as that is how a meritocracy system functions.
From a mathematical standpoint, this over representation will likely keep other groups proportionally underrepresented at schools like UCLA and, to a slightly smaller extent, UIUC (13% enrolled Asian students not including international students [9%] compared to 4.4% in the state), unless one ethnic group is severely underrepresented. I’ve really not read any literature on this, I’m assuming because it would be taken as politically incorrect.
In thinking about the UC situation, I read a very interesting and well written article “Asian Americans: Model Minority or Double Minority” (online though the library) by Arthur Hu and found it very interesting. The basic premise is that while there are many Asian Americans who come from privileged backgrounds there are also groups of Asian Americans who are very disadvantaged from an educational or SES perspective. He talks about over representation in colleges but says that since there are a large number of qualified Asian Americans that want to go to schools like UCLA that to strive for proportional equity against Asian Americans would be unfair. He also says that some elite institutions in the past have done this.