Letter: Columnist guilty of perpetuating racial stereotypes

For a columnist supposedly concerned with racial issues, Nikyatu Jusu showed surprising inconsistency in her Friday column. In the process of describing how victimized she is by racially oriented body image stereotypes, she refers to her own rear end as a "medium-sized Asian-girl booty," thereby accepting and perpetuating a stereotype identical to the one she spends the rest of her column decrying.

While this reference could just be seen as evidence of some amusingly inconsistent logic on the writer's part, it demonstrates a common problem in thinking about racial issues, both at Duke and in America. Stereotypes that would be fiercely combatted when applied to whites or blacks are often accepted when directed towards Asians. I would have hoped that a writer who spends so much time on racial issues would be able to see beyond black and white.

If Jusu wants to spend her bi-weekly 800 words telling the readers of this paper about her backside, that's her business. I just ask that she do it with a smidgen of consistency, and a little more respect for all races.