All good things don’t last long; there will always be someone to ruin it.
As the Dartmouth community was in the midst of celebrating the appointment of Jim Yong Kim, an e-mail was sent out to the entire school in “an attempt of satire”:
“Date: March 3, 2009 11:06:39 AM EST
To: GOOD-MORNING@LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU
Subject: Good MorningThis is the Generic Good Morning Message for March 3, 2009.
Yesterday came the announcement that President of the College James Wright will be replaced by Chinaman Kim Jim Yong. And a little bit of me died inside.
It was a complete supplies.
On July 1, yet another hard-working American’s job will be taken by an immigrant willing to work in substandard conditions at near-subsistent wage, saving half his money and sending the rest home to his village in the form of traveler’s checks. Unless “Jim Yong Kim” means “I love Freedom” in Chinese, I don’t want anything to do with him. Dartmouth is America, not Panda Garden Rice Village Restaurant.
Y’all get ready for an Asianification under the guise of diversity under the actual Malaysian-invasion leadership instituted under the guise of diversity. It’s a slippery slope we are on. I for one want Democracy and apple pie, not Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen. I know I sure as shit won’t ever be eating my Hop dubs bubs with chopsticks. I like to use my own two American hands.”
I was not too surprised by this e-mail. It’s really just Dartmouth being Dartmouth, where insensitivity is the game. Dartmouth is still very much a bastion of white elitism, no matter what they want you to believe. Dartmouth, and much of America, has a habit of cloaking racially offensive material under the guise of satire and comedy — they blame those who are hurt and offended for not being able to take a joke or understand the humor.
While I may not classify this as truly racist, it’s still very offensive. The material here is still used with malicious and serious intent towards Asian Americans in this country today — I guarantee you that the race jokes you find in a comedy club are nowhere near the ’satire’ you find in this e-mail.
I have been called Chinaman on many occasions. It is the equivalent of the N-word with a history just as abusive, ignorant, and dirty. American history seems to have forgotten about its treatment of Asians in this country -— the building of the railroads, the immigration bans, the internment camps, the inequality, the ignorance. The term Chinaman has been used to describe anyone of Asian descent, regardless of country or culture. It feeds into this idea that all Asians are the same, that all Asian cultures are the same. Chinaman is a manifestation of all the American xenophobia and racism faced by early Asian immigrants.
Furthermore, there is still a perception in America that people of Asian descent are still foreign. The Asian American community as a whole is still far from being fully embraced by America. Trying to joke along these lines is difficult, controversial, and will undoubtedly end badly. It’s too soon right now to make joking references to the foreignness of Asians because this perception is still strong, alive, assumed, and believed.
What irritates me is how mainstream media rarely picks up on racism and insensitivity towards Asian Americans. Racism towards Asians is one of the last socially acceptable forms of racism in America. If Dartmouth’s new president were black, Hispanic, gay, or even female, similar “satirical” comments directed at him/her would probably be deemed newsworthy. There would be collective outrage and little doubt as to exactly how inflammatory or offensive it was.
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16 Comments to “Racist E-Mail Circulates About Dartmouth’s President-Elect”
John wrote:
Dartmouth has always been I think the most culturally conservative campus in the Ivy League.
As for no media outrage relative to if the new Dartmouth president were black, Hispanic, gay, or even female – well, Asian Americans needs to work on this…
Posted on 08-Mar-09 at 5:32 pm | Permalink
David wrote:
Contact the OCA.
http://www.ocanational.org/
Posted on 08-Mar-09 at 8:18 pm | Permalink
David wrote:
I sent them the link to this blog post.
Posted on 08-Mar-09 at 8:24 pm | Permalink
Kevin wrote:
It isn’t fair to judge the actions of one individual, and I guess the failures of a small student organization, and then accept it to be true for the entire organization. The outcry from the general community of students, staff, and professors at Dartmouth have generally been very assertive and I honestly believe that they are trying as much as they can to progress forward as a community towards continuing embracing identity, and preventing another incident from happening in the future.
Still I believe that the individual should be severely punished; a letter of apology seems to be an escape more than anything else.
to share -
http://www.ivygateblog.com/2009/03/dartmouth-students-jump-to-racist-conclusions-about-new-president/
http://www.ivygateblog.com/2009/03/author-of-racist-email-apologizes-promises-to-be-funnier-in-future/
Posted on 08-Mar-09 at 8:25 pm | Permalink
Tien Nguyen wrote:
Normally I think complaints and cries about racism are overblown and unneeded–but this is pretty awful and another example of Asians being neglected being at the bottom of the race chain.
Your last statement is spot on too–if the new president were black and an email were sent saying that he’d start making people eat fried chicken and collared greens, or if he were gay and it mentioned him forcing people to watch musicals and wear pink–it’d for certain make national news.
Posted on 08-Mar-09 at 8:26 pm | Permalink
Stephen wrote:
Here’s the actual apology from the writer. While I certainly do not in any support the actions of Tommy Brothers, I thought it would be appropriate to at least post his full apology.
I would like to apologize to the entire Dartmouth community for the offense and harm that I caused by writing the Generic Good Morning Message listserv on Tuesday morning. I was the anonymous GGMM intern cited in the D as “Lozar Theofilactidis,” and the words were all mine.
I understand that the message I wrote was very hurtful and insensitive. I know that no apology can make up for the pain I’ve caused, but I hope that it can be
a start. I also know that no matter what justification I can attempt to provide for my actions, I’ve directly harmed the College, and I’m sorry for that.
I hope you can all understand that my intent was never one of malice against the Asian community, but an extremely crass attempt at hyperbolic satire. I was initially
trying to criticize what I perceived to be surprise among many at the naming of an Asian-American President-Elect, Dr. Kim. I then tried to broaden my attack
to encompass all of the reactionary, xenophobic, neo-Patriotism that exists in our post 9/11 America. I tried to create a narrator that would be viewed asignorant,
and I hoped that by removing any semblance of subtlety, this voice would not be taken seriously. I realize now that somewhere in that transformation, the
specific target of my satire was lost, and all that remained on the page were my extremely racist words.
That being said, I now know that I can’t hide behind my “intent.” Intent and execution are two entirely different things. I know I hurt many people personally, and damaged the reputation of the College publicly. I deeply regret my actions and the harm I have caused. I had no right to spread a message that alienated and belittled one ethic group, particularly one to which I do not belong.
I also realize that this reaction of surprise that I perceived among somestudents was not racist or xenophobic at all, but rather appropriate. Come July, we will have the first Asian-American Ivy League President, proudly breaking a tradition of largely Caucasian male Presidents. I know the entire College community is very proud of this fact.
The student body’s response in defense of Dr. Kim, both privately and publicly, has been overwhelmingly positive. The D’s article yesterday, “E-mail on Kim stirs
controversy,” clearly showed that my misinterpreted words do not represent Dartmouth’s actual opinions of Dr. Kim’s election. I know that my message seemed to act as
a flagship of student opinion outside of Hanover, and I apologize for giving that a chance to happen.
I have started, along with the rest of the GGMM staff, to try to find ways that the whole community can learn from this experience. We are meeting with OPAL and the Pan-Asian Council to try to find a constructive strategy moving forward. Among the comedy groups at Dartmouth, I hope we can find a way to try to prevent offensive lines in satire from being crossed again, as they have been in the past. I hope that my incendiary message at least provoked some discussion about race and inclusively on campus, but I am ashamed that it required so much offense and hurt for this to happen.
I know I can never take back what I wrote. I am sorry if I hurt you personally, and I am sorry for affecting the College in such a negative way. If you would like to speak to me individually about this, I would love to do so. Perhaps at the beginning of next term, after finals, would be the best time. I promise you I am going to learn as much as I can from this mistake.
Sincerely,
Tommy Brothers
Class of 2011
Posted on 08-Mar-09 at 9:56 pm | Permalink
To update y’all on the Dartmouth situation. « motivations. wrote:
[...] check out the post here. I don’t necessarily agree with it, but its good to [...]
Posted on 08-Mar-09 at 10:03 pm | Permalink
Kim wrote:
Well,
For me, its refreshing, and something of a relief to find out there are, indeed, members of the Dartmouth community who can write a good racist slur—in an earlier post, I was somewhat concerned…
Perhaps, it was a collaborative effort—- all the more reason to identify the individuals….assemble them….ask them further questions…….and then let them speak uninterrupted…
Posted on 08-Mar-09 at 10:07 pm | Permalink
Yan wrote:
Yeah, I was planning on going over the college’s response in my next post.
I actually know Tommy Brothers, the author of the e-mail. He was a dorm floormate of mine freshmen year.
Posted on 08-Mar-09 at 10:09 pm | Permalink
Ernie wrote:
Yan: Are you SERIOUS, you KNOW the guy? Hope you have some choice words to say to him the next time you see him on the quad. (My moneys on you for a smackdown, FWIW)
Posted on 08-Mar-09 at 10:12 pm | Permalink
Yan wrote:
Of course I know the guy. Dartmouth’s the size of Yao Ming’s thumbnail.
He’s not a bad kid.
Posted on 08-Mar-09 at 10:19 pm | Permalink
To share Dr. Kim’s response. « motivations. wrote:
[...] Anyway, Yan from 8asians.com just responded to my comment about my post here, which was partially a response to this. [...]
Posted on 09-Mar-09 at 12:45 am | Permalink
Moye wrote:
That’s still a pretty big thumbnail.
I still don’t understand this kid’s attempt at satire, though, or his logic behind writing such a thing. I was at Brown when they brought on the first African American female president of an Ivy League school, and absolutely zero people put forth something “humorous” like this. In fact, everyone was just really excited and proud. So even seeing someone try to judge their campus’ reaction as surprise or xenophobic (when it clearly wasn’t) is just…unbelievable.
Posted on 09-Mar-09 at 3:27 pm | Permalink
12 wrote:
rcst ccksckr..rll dwn my blck nd w wll s wht hppns t yr ss..
Posted on 09-Mar-09 at 3:41 pm | Permalink
8Asians.com » Epik High’s (Bad?) Attempt at Humor wrote:
[...] addresses a similar issue addressing racial satire posted by Yan on this blog earlier this year and begs the question: when does racially motivated humor (or any [...]
Posted on 30-Mar-09 at 9:23 pm | Permalink
POP 88, A J-Pop and K-Pop Podcast » Epik High’s (Bad?) Attempt at Humor wrote:
[...] addresses a similar issue addressing racial satire posted by Yan and begs the question: when does racially motivated humor — or any humor involving race, [...]
Posted on 31-Mar-09 at 10:57 am | Permalink
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