I would like to respond to Stewart Day's April 7 letter to the editor. His comments, which "applauded" The Chronicle's silly and offensive humor, were rather disturbing. As an international student from Korea, I found the April Fool's Day "joke" front page rather horrific, and several of my friends who are of diverse origins shared my opinion. I appreciated immediate responses by Asian Students Association members and other conscious individuals.
Although it was meant to be funny and caused "no harm" according to Day, I found the ridiculing and stereotypes reflected on the front page of "the" newspaper of Duke rather hurtful. Sure, it was toward "Chinese" people, and Day may argue saying, "But, you're not Chinese." But let's face it: Isn't China often representative of Asia when people make broad generalizations and stereotypes on Asian people?
I took it as a racial joke on Asian students, especially international students who may not be fluent in English right away as they come over to a foreign country. I also found Day's argument flawed and confusing, as he tried to distinguish the "substantial differences between acts of discrimination and acts of stereotyping." Stereotyping is a form of discrimination by grouping distinctive individuals of certain origins-often minorities-as monotonous blobs. Whether the stereotype is about people of certain origins being good at math and sciences, being athletic or being hypersexual, it is a convenient and pathetic way of disintegrating human race.
It is disappointing to see a few individuals who are so comfortable with the uncomfortable reality. Stereotypes may not be "vicious lies," but are often vicious farces.
By the way, for my SAT, I did not get 790 on Math and 420 on Verbal.
Young-In Song
Trinity '09
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