AsianWeek’s idiotic editors have managed to put Asian-Americans like myself in an awkward position not entirely unlike that of American Muslims after 9-11. Do we go out of our way to condemn the egregious behavior of a handful of knuckleheads who happen to share our phenotype to prove to the world that we’re not all like that? Or does the very act of doing so only serve to dignify the absurd suspicion that maybe this guy represents people other than himself? And moreover, do we, as co-ethnics, shoulder some unique responsibility to even have to worry about this garbage?
In case you’re unfamiliar, I’m talking about the column by some jackass named Kenneth Eng entitled “Why I Hate Blacks” that includes such gems as this:
“Contrary to media depictions, I would argue that blacks are weak-willed. They are the only race that has been enslaved for 300 years. It’s unbelievable that it took them that long to fight back.”
San Francisco’s AsianWeek newspaper ran the column, which to me is a much more perplexing fact than that there’s someone out there stupid enough to harbor these beliefs. The editors are now tripping over themselves to apologize, but they have yet to explain how the hell whoever reviewed this piece thought it fit for the presses. Even before Eng submitted his tour de stupidite, you’d think that after his earlier column, “Proof That Whites Inherently Hate Us,” someone at AsianWeek would have gotten a clue.
Anyway, I’m leaning toward the condemnation option, though it rankles me that I should even have to be stuck in this quandary of some other doofus’ creation. If you’re leaning that direction too, here’s a blog that just came to my attention:
It’s got a petition.