[Kevin]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Where has the Asian Student Association called for punishments that could affect any academic careers? I haven't seen reports of any calls for action from the ASA beyond calls for conversations with the goal of minimizing instances of racial insensitivity on campus. The most I have seen punishment-wise has been individual students suggesting that the chapter had placed its charter in jeopardy.

From your quote:

“This is not just about Asians, one party or one frat,” Tsai said. “This is a consistent thing happening. We want serious things to be done by the student body and the University so that this never happens again.”

Admittedly, this didn't come from the ASA, but rather some apparent pamphleteer. I did a little reading about the water buffalo incident at Duke. If you don't recall, I linked a wiki article above Apparently being racially insensitive is a very serious student conduct violation. There were also lawsuits based on retaliatory behavior by faculty against members of the LaCrosse team following that whole boondoggle.

Asking for "serious things" to happen doesn't require a lot of speculation to lead one to think they are suggesting the University seriously sanction anyone deemed to have offended someone else.

Maybe -- they're not words I would choose, because I don't think injustice is the right word. Again though, context matters. And part of the context is that I think what they were calling an "act of injustice" was not just "a party where people play dress up," but a party that the chapter was already on notice was perceived as racially insensitive. It's kind of hard to take an apology seriously that basically says "now that we know how this offended people, we're sorry," when they were told beforehand how people already were offended and went ahead anyway.

And if it was racially insensitive, so freaking what? Asians make up 22% of the undergrad student body at Duke. You can't tell me that they felt threatened or marginalized or anything of that nature. It boils down to the fact that some students didn't like what Kappa Sigma did. Kappa Sigma is free to do what it wants internally (I'll bet they're restored as soon as this blows over), but what I'm seeing here is a lot of overreaction and very poor crisis management by the fraternity--you never do yourself favors by removing flyers.

And speaking of context, if you're going to cite the "act of injustice" comment, you have to acknowledge that immediately after that comment, they said "If you believe that we have exceeded our capacity, or otherwise disagree, please feel free to voice your concerns. We welcome an open discussion."

I think his statement is very well worded. It attempts to refute just about any criticism one could have of the ASA's actions. That they say they don't intend to speak on behalf of 22% of Duke's student body is fine, but folks aren't going to perceive it that way. Kappa Sigma didn't intend to represent Duke's Greek community when it threw its party, but folks aren't going to perceive it that way.

And I mean, very clearly, some folks' attitude about this is this is less than wanting an open discussion.

Protip: white people do not get to tell people of color what's offensive.

And here's a quote from the rally of several hundred people (not an overreaction?)

“My parents gave up everything they had in China to come here to give me a better life: their language, their culture, their educational recognition, their careers,” Zhou said. Other students “can pretend to be Asian for this one night, for this one party, but I have to be Asian my whole life. It trivializes me! It makes me feel like less than a human being.”

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/201...#storylink=cpy

She may feel that way, but that's certainly not anyone but her fault. If that's how she wants to interpret and internalize some grown men and women dressing in adult diapers and bathrobes, that's fine.

My family's experience in coming here from Europe wasn't a lot different than her family from China. On my dad's side, they were Irish, it was the late 1880s and they homesteaded in Northwest Oklahoma after coming over the Atlantic with nothing more than they could carry. Not only did they relocate to a place where civilization was far away, they were also Irish, thus, except among their own kind, they were outcasts. Go ahead and throw a party somehow making fun of Irish immigrants, or do as many children in Oklahoma do--reenact the land run on '89er day (my family did participate in the land run of the Cherokee Outlet). Think I'd consider that offensive or be reasonable if I did?