ASA is racist

I found the barrage of letters to the editor from Asian Students Association members over the Chomicle article "China Invades Duke; SAT scores rise" very ironic. Senior Cristian Liu, the current president of ASA, wrote in his April 2 letter that he took great offense to the article for "exploit[ing] false racial stereotypes for the purpose of humor." Yet at ASA's biggest showcase of the year, the Lunar New Year show, MCs-including current ASA executive board member and next year's president, Andrew Hsiao, a Pratt junior-repeatedly stereotyped Asians for the purpose of humor. For example, fake Asian accents abounded as well as plays on the attractiveness of Asian males. Remember the segment on the misting machine which gave Asian men confidence? (If not, look at Hsiao's Facebook profile picture.)

The most offensive part of ASA, however, is not the events it holds, but the ideas endorsed by people that it elects into office. For example, consider what a current executive board member and newly elected executive vice president, junior Jay Lee, wrote on the Facebook wall for the group "Everybody Loves a Taiwanese Girl:" "still compared with non-asian americans, whites, blacks, latinos, I think Asians tend to be the least slutty by far due to culture genes who knows my friend thinks its genetic too." Interestingly, he even stereotypes down to the region saying, "you want a whore, go to china. they may not be good looking like Taiwanese girls, but ull actually be able to find lots there. "

As there is a word limit, I cannot list all the stereotyping done by future ASA executives, but I am left to wonder why members of ASA are so anxious to criticize others for stereotyping that they do themselves. ASA officers should be held to the same standards that they judge others upon. While I do not believe that ASA represents the views of the majority of Asians on campus, I wonder whose views they do represent.

Craig Reeson

Trinity '09