Sunday, March 20, 2011

On the UCLA Anti-Asian You Tube Video

Word is the college student who posted the video has now left UCLA and with her family been targeted with death threats and the like.

The whole reaction has been unimpressive. Our society personalizes things because it is easy. Someone should not have their life ruined over a mistake, one in which the original video was taken down within the hour after recognition of the mistake.

Focusing on the racism or immaturity of an individual college student really does nothing to challenge power or structural racial issues in our society. It just makes people feel good in a vengeful kind of way. It is emotional, not logical. And it is cowardly in the end, because taking on power requires sacrifice; attacking a college student acting on their own does not.

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