WHY COLUMNIST HATES BLACKS
March 10th 2007 22:50
ON GOING MEDIA FURORE ABOUT ASIAN-AMERICAN’S RACIST SLUR ABOUT AFRO-AMERICANS
Controversy continues to rage in the US over a column titled Why I hate Blacks written by 23-year old Kenneth Eng and published in the San Franciscan AsianWeek.
Eng has subsequently been sacked by the publication, called a “nut “ on Fox News, his book as been pulled from Amazon.com, and journalist Richard Prince reported in his Journal-isms online column that San Francisco's city government passes a resolution to pull ads from AsianWeek. The resolution read in part, "That the Board of Supervisors urges all City departments and other government entities to withdraw any money spent on advertising in AsianWeek."
But Richard Prince noted, “As it turns out, the measure is merely symbolic as regards the city government, since the city no longer spends money with AsianWeek. But it also urges other government agencies, such as Bay Area Rapid Transit, not to advertise in the publication.”
While Eng’s column was unfortunate, Eng told Fox News that part of the reason for his odd little piece was that he hit back against racism he felt he endured from some members of the black community. He said,” “Well, you know, just to be blunt, 90 percent of them usually walk up to me and call me, you know, like for instance, ching-chong and stuff like that. I mean, I don't really give a damn, but you know, I mean, after a while it gets pretty damn annoying. And not to mention they get so much media attention. (MediaBlab Mar 9.)”
The outrage, the shunning and the banning does seem to MediaBlab to be over-the-top and raises the age-old question of the parameters of so-called free speech.
What strikes MediaBlab as even more interesting is that previous pieces Eng wrote for AsianWeek, titled Why I Hate Asians, and Proof that Whites Inherently Hate Us did not cause similar outrage.
Perhaps one of the most reasonable comments made about Eng’s piece in the sea of righteous hysteria promoted by his article appeared in a front page San Francisco Chronicle story quoting David Lee of the Chinese American Voters Education Committee. He said Eng's column "echoes the feelings of some Asian-Americans…There is a segment that feels the way Eng does, but the sentiment is underground and not brought to the surface. If you don't have a discussion, then I think it allows these types of views to fester and turn into something much more negative. Rather than refute and bury this, we should be calling for a community dialogue to address this.”
The Hutchison Report, written by Earl Ofari Hutchinson for BlackAmericaWeb.com, asked “Was the Uproar Over Kenneth Eng’s Column Worth It, Amid More Pressing Issues?”
Hutchinson wrote, “Kenneth Eng has been crucified for recently writing in AsianWeek blacks are weak-willed, Asian-hating, and were complacent in subjection to slavery. Was he totally wrong? Did he have the right to say his hurtful words? Did AsianWeek have the right to publish them? And was the passion and anger that Eng whipped up warranted when measured against the big-ticket problems that hammer blacks daily?
“A few days after Eng’s inflammatory column sent AsianWeek publishers back-peddling fast to utter mea culpas, drew denunciations from politicians and media activists, got his sci-fi book pulled from Amazon.com, and got him banned to writer’s Siberia, a cross-section of black activists, politicians and writers at a roundtable in Los Angeles weighed in on Eng, AsianWeek and relations with Asian-Americans. They answered the above questions far differently and surprisingly than those outraged at Eng’s column and him have. The views ranged from much ado about nothing to a near defense of him.”
On the other hand, fellow AsianWeek columnist Emil Guillermo lambasted Eng, writing, in AsianWeek, “I cheered when The New York Times busted Ann Coulter this week for using the term ‘faggot’ in reference to democratic presidential candidate John Edwards at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington. Too bad it took two days before the Times or anyone else bothered to report the story.
“That lag time makes hate speech acceptable and helps create a Kenneth Eng.
“Maybe the media felt the multimedia conservative Coulter was ‘old news’ compared to the obscure Eng and his ‘Why I Hate Blacks’ remarks in little ol’ AsianWeek.
“It all makes the feeding frenzy over Eng a tad surreal for my taste.
There’s an overzealousness in some of the blogs out there as people take delight in a PC cop like AsianWeek being caught promoting a two-bit hatemonger.
The truth is Eng’s a pipsqueak ranter whose hateful writing on blacks should never have been published by AsianWeek.”
MediaBlab calls for the reinstatement of Eng to AsianWeek. While his comments are contentious, given the nature of his previous pieces, it’s obvious that he’s not just some rabid redneck racist (with apologies to any red-skinned members of the global community.) In his own abrupt way he’s calling attention to the sad reality that racism lurks in the bosom of every ethnic community, and that his column, as David Lee pointed out, it should prompt a “community dialogue” to address such issues.
But MediaBlab’s call for the reinstatement of Eng is conditional – he must promise to never write a column called Why I Hate Australians…Of Any Colour. That would be just too much.
Controversy continues to rage in the US over a column titled Why I hate Blacks written by 23-year old Kenneth Eng and published in the San Franciscan AsianWeek.
Eng has subsequently been sacked by the publication, called a “nut “ on Fox News, his book as been pulled from Amazon.com, and journalist Richard Prince reported in his Journal-isms online column that San Francisco's city government passes a resolution to pull ads from AsianWeek. The resolution read in part, "That the Board of Supervisors urges all City departments and other government entities to withdraw any money spent on advertising in AsianWeek."
While Eng’s column was unfortunate, Eng told Fox News that part of the reason for his odd little piece was that he hit back against racism he felt he endured from some members of the black community. He said,” “Well, you know, just to be blunt, 90 percent of them usually walk up to me and call me, you know, like for instance, ching-chong and stuff like that. I mean, I don't really give a damn, but you know, I mean, after a while it gets pretty damn annoying. And not to mention they get so much media attention. (MediaBlab Mar 9.)”
The outrage, the shunning and the banning does seem to MediaBlab to be over-the-top and raises the age-old question of the parameters of so-called free speech.
What strikes MediaBlab as even more interesting is that previous pieces Eng wrote for AsianWeek, titled Why I Hate Asians, and Proof that Whites Inherently Hate Us did not cause similar outrage.
The Hutchison Report, written by Earl Ofari Hutchinson for BlackAmericaWeb.com, asked “Was the Uproar Over Kenneth Eng’s Column Worth It, Amid More Pressing Issues?”
Hutchinson wrote, “Kenneth Eng has been crucified for recently writing in AsianWeek blacks are weak-willed, Asian-hating, and were complacent in subjection to slavery. Was he totally wrong? Did he have the right to say his hurtful words? Did AsianWeek have the right to publish them? And was the passion and anger that Eng whipped up warranted when measured against the big-ticket problems that hammer blacks daily?
“A few days after Eng’s inflammatory column sent AsianWeek publishers back-peddling fast to utter mea culpas, drew denunciations from politicians and media activists, got his sci-fi book pulled from Amazon.com, and got him banned to writer’s Siberia, a cross-section of black activists, politicians and writers at a roundtable in Los Angeles weighed in on Eng, AsianWeek and relations with Asian-Americans. They answered the above questions far differently and surprisingly than those outraged at Eng’s column and him have. The views ranged from much ado about nothing to a near defense of him.”
On the other hand, fellow AsianWeek columnist Emil Guillermo lambasted Eng, writing, in AsianWeek, “I cheered when The New York Times busted Ann Coulter this week for using the term ‘faggot’ in reference to democratic presidential candidate John Edwards at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington. Too bad it took two days before the Times or anyone else bothered to report the story.
“That lag time makes hate speech acceptable and helps create a Kenneth Eng.
“Maybe the media felt the multimedia conservative Coulter was ‘old news’ compared to the obscure Eng and his ‘Why I Hate Blacks’ remarks in little ol’ AsianWeek.
“It all makes the feeding frenzy over Eng a tad surreal for my taste.
There’s an overzealousness in some of the blogs out there as people take delight in a PC cop like AsianWeek being caught promoting a two-bit hatemonger.
The truth is Eng’s a pipsqueak ranter whose hateful writing on blacks should never have been published by AsianWeek.”
MediaBlab calls for the reinstatement of Eng to AsianWeek. While his comments are contentious, given the nature of his previous pieces, it’s obvious that he’s not just some rabid redneck racist (with apologies to any red-skinned members of the global community.) In his own abrupt way he’s calling attention to the sad reality that racism lurks in the bosom of every ethnic community, and that his column, as David Lee pointed out, it should prompt a “community dialogue” to address such issues.
But MediaBlab’s call for the reinstatement of Eng is conditional – he must promise to never write a column called Why I Hate Australians…Of Any Colour. That would be just too much.
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