The internet is a very useful thing these days; it keeps you connected to families and friends from far away, aids in fast information dissemination, and mostly entertains people. However the internet has made the world smaller and therefore a single insensitive comment can be blown up into disastrous proportions.
This morning, I saw an article on Yahoo! that a UCLA undergrad student quit school because of death threats and whatnot due to her racial slur on youtube. She dissed the Asian community for talking on the phone while in the library. She might have a point there, the library is a place where people study (well, sometimes people sleep there too...ehem) and therefore should be kept relatively quiet. However she used the recent catastrophe in Japan as an example of why those people were using the phone. If she understood that they were calling because they were checking up on their families' safety, then why upload a rant on a VERY public venue? Why not just ask that person to take the call elsewhere? I don't know if she just wanted to get attention or if the is really just insensitive but what she did made her appear stupid to a lot of people, not only Asians. She is an undergraduate student of Political Science in a very prominent university in one of the most powerful countries in the planet, I do not think that she is really stupid in general but her actions reflected that of an ill-educated person. I would like to think that they were taught manners in school and as a multicultural country I expected her to be more accepting of cultural differences. But I guess that was expecting too much.
She also mentioned about the Asians having to adapt to American manners because they are living in America. But why are most Americans in Asian countries still living like they were in the US? Like they are better than the host country? I actually agreed with her on some level but she should also be fair in her judgment. If she is claiming that we (Asians) have to adapt to their culture, then their expats should also adapt to the Asian culture. It's only fair and logical that way.
Regardless of her rant, I still hope that she continues her education so that her mind can be opened to more possibilities. I hope that a proper education can let her mind, heart, and soul be awakened to the beauty of diversity. The one that her country so proudly boasts of...
Lesson? Well, do not blabber in public without thoroughly thinking it through. Everything you say or do can be blown up into a full scale war that can destroy your life. What is humorous for you might be offensive to others, that is why you should always think of being "politically correct." Asians in general are very sensitive when it comes to their ethnicity, so be careful of what you say.
Link to the original article.
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