Racist and Sexist Signs Calling Asian Women ‘White-Boy Worshipping Whores’ Posted at UCLA

By jozjozjoz | Friday, November 30, 2012 | 28 Comments

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For the last few days, the Asian American websphere has been buzzing about two possibly related incidents at UCLA which campus police are investigating as hate crimes.

On Tuesday, a student discovered a piece of paper with the words “asian women R Honkie white-boy worshipping Whores” attached to a Vietnamese Student Union sign in Kerckhoff Hall at UCLA.

On Wednesday, another student found the words “Asian Women are White-Boy Worshipping Sluts” handwritten in the women’s bathroom of the library basement.

In response, students organized a rally (“awareness event”) which drew more than 200 participants. There are further events planned by the campus’ Asian Pacific Coalition.

The Vietnamese Student Union released this press release in response to the first incident:

VSU PRESS RELEASE: IN RESPONSE TO HATE CRIME IN FRONT OF THE VSU OFFICE

November 28, 2012

On November 27th, 2012 at approximately 8:30 AM, a piece of white paper was found posted on the sign of the Vietnamese Student Union’s (VSU) office on the fourth floor of Kerckhoff Hall. This vandalism, which included an illustration of an obscene hand gesture, read “asian women R Honkie white-boy worshipping Whores!!!” VSU is disappointed and offended that such racial and sexist comments are being made on a campus that prides itself on its diversity. It is truly upsetting that this is not simply an act of ignorance, but intolerance towards our organization. The fact that someone took the time to create, print, and post this hate crime in front of our office proves that this act is deliberate and intentional. This is not just an attack on our organization, but also an attack on the bigger API community and womyn#, especially of color.

The incident carries several implications for society’s view of Asian womyn. By categorizing Asian womyn as “whores”, the perpetrator of this incident further promotes stereotypes of hypersexuality and objectification. This message conveys the image of Asian womyn as mere sex objects rather than human beings and rejects their personal identity. Moreover, it reinforces the idea that Asian womyn have an innate attraction towards whites to the point of submissive reverence. This belief creates division within our community and across communities by portraying White males as the dominant group. Asian males who have become socialized to feel foreign or inferior to Whites can feel sexually threatened by White males and express contempt towards their female counterparts. This message breeds divisiveness and seeks to undo the work of many people of color and allies.

As the official voice for all Vietnamese students at UCLA, VSU is against the objectification of womyn. Events and issues such as pageants and human trafficking only perpetuate such notions, and VSU has made strong stances against them. The racist and sexist slurs within the front of our office only proves that we as an organization must continue to promote diversity and advocate for the needs of our community. Each year, VSU hosts its annual Vietnamese Culture Night (VCN) in Royce Hall to promote and share Vietnamese and Vietnamese-American culture with thousands of UCLA students, family, and alumni. Events like this aim to increase the presence of our community not only at UCLA, but as contributing members of our society, and combat stereotypes and ignorance demonstrated by the incident mentioned. It is especially relevant that the comments posted outside our office occur just months before our 33rd annual VCN, which will seek to address the issue of human trafficking and challenge the perceptions of Vietnamese and Asian womyn.

Although there is no quick fix solution to the incident that has transpired, we want to ensure that it will not go unnoticed. We feel the most effective action that will begin addressing this issue is to first generate awareness. Awareness alone brings light to this issue and opens opportunities for critical dialogue and potential action. This will come in the form of an awareness event held by the Vietnamese Student Union on Thursday November 29th, 2012 at noon at Meyerhoff Park in front of Kerckhoff Hall. To effectively gauge the demographic affected by this incident, this event allows prominent student leaders and UCLA faculty to demonstrate that our community is not silent and any further ideations of such actions are not tolerated. To further branch out to the demographic and allies of our cause, the Asian Pacific Coalition at UCLA will open a discussion forum Wednesday December 5th, 2012 at a time and location to be announced. Not only will this event promote awareness but also give some peace of mind to individuals who feel unresolved about the issue.

Respectfully,
The Vietnamese Student Union at UCLA

For me, this incident hits home as a Bruin who walked that same campus during my own undergraduate years. I can definitely imagine how uneasy– and yes, unsafe– it would be for a young Asian woman to feel, wondering how anyone on that campus could feel that way or at least be brazen (or stupid) enough to post them. I imagine that if I was that age today, this would be the topic that would be consuming me outside of academics, as I was actually a representative member of the Asian Pacific Coalition, an umbrella organization of a multitude of Asian and Pacific Islander (API) organizations on campus. I’m glad to see that this generation of college-aged APIs are not letting this incident go down without letting it be known that they won’t tolerate intolerance. Given the swift campus response to Alexandra Wallace’s racist YouTube rant about Asians in the library (also known as the Ching Chong Ling Long Ting Tong video), this is should be no surprise to anyone. (Go Bruins!)

Images from AngryAsianMan

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Current EventsDiscriminationEducationSouthern California

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Facebook Comments (Beta)

http://www.globalasianculture.com Liz

This is an unfortunate incident. But it does reflect some discomfort revolving around interracial relationships. Are there still more White male-Asian female couples than Asian male-White/Other Female ones? And if so, isn’t it time to explore why that is, and if that is creating friction among Asians? When I speak to Asian American women who date Whites it’s interesting to note, that yes, well there’s love, but there’s also the belief they are more attractive because the image of the White Male connotes power, social norms of manhood, and Brad Pitt. To demote Asian men vis-a-vis White men is a very integral part of mate selection for some. And I don’t think a blanket labeling of this incident as racist will completely eradicate the problems with race and perception as it affects the Asian American community.
http://www.facebook.com/rachel.stockwood Rachel Stockwood

One of the suspects is a white/jewish/or black woman.
http://www.facebook.com/rachel.stockwood Rachel Stockwood

These comments were scrawled on a women’s bathroom stall. I find it really hard to believe some man sneaked his way into a females bathroom. Imagine getting caught? Embarrassing
Pingback: 8Asians Reader Response: Reaction to UCLA Racist Posters | 8Asians Reader Response | 8Asians.com
dk2020

Hmmm I wonder if its an angry asian guy or other minority because why would white people call themselves honkies? Isn’t honkie a term for hong kongers too ..
Guest

scooby doo, where are you!!~
http://www.facebook.com/rachel.stockwood Rachel Stockwood

Why would a Jewish girl call herself a k*ke? There was a recent story when a Jewish woman spray painted Jewish epithets on her dorm room door and blamed others for doing it. And number two, who is going to go into a WOMEN’s bathroom? Imagine an (Asian/etc) guy getting caught? That doesn’t even make sense. Unless this “angry Asian guy” cut a hole through the ceiling and somehow scaled his way into the bathroom to post this message. And those terms “honkie” and “white boy” – those are words I’ve heard from people down south, not an Asian growing up in California.
MaSir

Why did my comment not show up 8asians?
Ant123abc

My guess is it’s a frustrated Asian man. lol
MaSir

Thank you for deleting my comments…TWICE.
KAMIKAZIPILOT

Are you actually questioning whether there are more WM/AF couples than AM/WF couples? Surely you must know the answer to that. This internalized white supremacy is extremely prevalent in asian females and to a lesser extent in asian males. Most of it is due to the dominant white culture telling asians that whites are superior to them. And don’t tell me it’s about the low percentage of asians in this country, I’ve seen asians from asia have the same ideology or even worse.

Ways to fight this include asian men and women banding together to recognize there is a problem (many don’t admit there’s a problem) and acting accordingly. Examples include being more assertive and outspoken. Not being so submissive (yes asians are submissive) in any situation. If someone is picking on you stand up for yourself. Be proud of who you are and stop trying so hard to assimilate and fit into a role that mainstream culture defines for you. Most importantly is to have confidence in who you are and what you do. People can sense confidence or lack thereof.
KAMIKAZIPILOT

That’s also what I though but you really never know. For all we know it could be someone with mental problems. But logically I’d say it was an asian male or at least another minority male. I think people from HK are also called Hongers.
http://www.jozjozjoz.com jozjozjoz

@MaSir:disqus: Speaking on behalf of 8Asians, I’m not aware of anyone moderating or deleting your comments.
http://www.facebook.com/JjangStar Juan A Fanta

that’s so annoying and rude. i’ve had websites do that to my posts, as well as people i know, without warning. and then the website had the audacity to tell me, “i have no idea what you’re talking about, please send an email to. . .to fix this problem”. and then when i posted with a different account AND with my original account and wrote something LESS outspoken, it was not deleted. shame.
MaSir

Ok. 8asians better not delete my post again. This will be my 3rd time saluting and thanking Liz for at the very least acknowledging the issue and questioning the underlying assumptions behind this phenomenon. More and more Asian women are beginning to question who’s mixing the Kool Aid that they’ve been drinking this whole time which is a sign of progress.

However, we must continue to march forward and make progress not just through dialogue, but also by taking action. Asian males especially, need to be more assertive on the dating front and not shy away from
xolang

thank you for pointing that out. it’s been a sore topic within Asian communities for years or even decades.

John of 8Asians wrote about this in October, in respond to an article in Washington Post that indicated that the pairing of AsianFemale-WhiteMale is even more frequent than AF-AM, whilst WF-AM is, as we also all know, nearly inexistent.

unfortunately attraction is something that is hard to change, even after one realizes racialized factors that shaped it. still, my own experience says that it’s not impossible, although it took me years to be able to see Asian men as desirable and sexual in a masculine way.

I also applaud Kamikazipilot and MaSir for their comments. it’s true that we need to (re)shape our own notions of masculinity and desirability and not to bow down to Anglo or eurocentric standards that put White Man on top of the totem pole.
http://www.facebook.com/rachel.stockwood Rachel Stockwood

Yeah, makes a lot of sense that an AM (or any male) scaled his way into the WOMEN’S BATHROOM. A bit of a stretch, don’t you think?
http://destroytorebuild.blogspot.com/ MaSir

Would you be open for a brief Q&A via email? I’d love to hear more about your experience and what caused you to have a change of heart. Perhaps a blog about it! You can contact me here at:
masir dot jones at gmail
KAMIKAZIPILOT

No not a stretch at all. I’ve personally seen men go into women’s bathrooms when I was in college.
david0688

So instead of discussing the sign we’re talking about interracial dating
now? What about how hateful that sign is? Why are we on a tangent
blaming interracial dating and some what sympathizing with the person
who put this sign up?
Edwin

stop the hate!
mingzi

Honestly the number of Asian guys who resent WMAF relations vs white girls who resent them…. points the likelihood to the former

But I couldn’t take this article seriously when it insists on using “womyn” like a real word
http://www.facebook.com/rachel.stockwood Rachel Stockwood

First off, it takes gonads to sneak into a women’s bathroom to hang a sign. 2nd, it was the middle stall not the one near the exits where the sign was found. With cajones like that, this isn’t the type of person to sneak around.

My take is that it was a Jewish female. Those are the types most directly affected by these interracial unions of AF/WM. What may seem like like gentile White males are in actuality, Jewish. It’s a fact that the Jewish community is most heavily impacted by Asian females foray into their community. A sort of rape of the Sabine women in reverse, if you will.
Halden

As a white male, I can attest that this is indeed not the case.

Or I’m just really bad at being white.

… Or I’m just really bad with women.

Damnit
Dascos

He’s paranoid. His comments are one sided.
fangkuai

Conspiracy theories abound huh
It was probably an Asian guy. I’ve met tons who get mad at ‘losing our women’, even I used to think like that. Just be glad they’re not making a huge deal about “racism” at the school.
Jennifer Cobb

What do black women care who white/asian people date? Stop trying to drag them into this.
Jennifer Cobb

The stereotype is that women of African decent have the longest vaginal canals and women of Asian decent have the shortest. (I was thinking, WTF is a “big vagina”?) That has nothing to do with how “tight” someone is down there.

8 Asians