Monday, February 26, 2007
I hope you like comedy
"Laugh Out Loud Funny!" When people fall over themselves to condemn racism, they say some funny things.
"The hate is based on ignorance and is very similar to the rationales that the KKK uses against African Americans," said Henry Der, director for 22 years of Chinese for Affirmative Action and the former state administrator for Emeryville's schools.
"What gives me the greatest concern was AsianWeek's judgment in printing such a piece out of context," Der said. "It is so trite and hateful, it doesn't speak well for the publication." Out of context, eh? Sometimes, you overuse a phrase so much you forget what it means. I don't think there's any contextual ambiguity going on here. Should the piece have been printed "in context"? Would that be the better judgment? What would that entail?
Ted Fang's brother James, who is president of the paper, has spent more than a decade on the BART Board of Directors and previously worked as international trade director for former San Francisco Mayor Frank Jordan. See, now we're out of context. Or maybe we're in context. It's so confusing!
Eng's "reasons" for hating black people include:
-- "Blacks hate us. Every Asian who has ever come across them knows that they take almost every opportunity to hurl racist remarks at us."
-- "Contrary to media depictions, I would argue that blacks are weak-willed. They are the only race that has been enslaved for 300 years."
-- "Blacks are easy to coerce. This is proven by the fact that so many of them, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, tend to be Christians." Comedy gold! What we need now is a black paper writing a one-word rebuttal: Communism.
The leaders' statement, issued in Washington, D.C., called the piece "irresponsible journalism, blatantly racist, replete with stereotypes and deeply hurtful to African Americans." Good thing the poor widdle black folk have us Asians to stand up for them. They'd shatter at the slightest racism, otherwise. Isn't there an "easily offended" stereotype that needs fighting?
San Francisco writer Claire Light, one of several bloggers who wrote about the column over the weekend, said the newspaper in general -- and especially Eng's column -- makes her embarrassed to be Asian. Yeah, man. Everyone knows we Asians share a telepathic bond, and anything stupid any one of us says reflects poorly on the rest of us. Besides, white folks can't tell us apart, anyway.
She said that "most Asian Americans have never even heard of AsianWeek, much less agree with its editorial decision making." I guess I'm suddenly curious as to how much damage this paper that nobody ever reads can do.
Der said the column was offensive not only to African Americans but to everyone -- and especially because it was published during Black History Month. Publish this in April, though, and it's not so bad. Is it really necessary to seek exacerbating factors?
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