I know that I’ve been crucially missing from the discussion in a post that I wrote two months ago generally about racism, and I apologize for my inactivity. In all honesty, the disappearance is largely attributed to my focus on my finals and being at home for winter break. In addition to that, I have been spending some time discussing with others from within the hardboiled core and other members of the Asian American community at Berkeley which direction to head from here.
Firstly, some things to address:
1) See community rules for posting. Because of the multitude of comments that have been posted onto our blog unfiltered, providing no insightful commentary, the hardboiled core has decided to post rules for comments. All comments that do not adhere to these rules will be moderated. We deemed this important as to prevent spamming of our blog. Anonymous comments will continue to be allowed, however, it would be wise to leave a legitimate email address so that we may contact you, in case your comment does not follow our rules. Regulation will not occur retroactively, however. But be warned that from this moment onward, we will be following through with these regulations for our blog.
2) In regards to my post…. From the beginning, the intention of the entry was never to attack an individual for being a racist, but rather to note one of the many things that spurred me to feel disgusted towards acts of racism, hate speech, and hate crime. I took great care to conceal the identity of the owner of the album, because I felt it would take away from the purpose of the post. My point was not to direct attacks towards a person, but rather, to promote thought on hate speech and hate crime that continue today, despite a belief that our society has advanced and is no longer racist.
It is worthy to note that this post was published a while ago: after the post was written, I took the initiative to talk with the person whose Facebook photo album I noted. The person themself noted that the photo album could be construed as racist, and agreed to take them down. The act, to me, was their acknowledgment that the photos were harmful and inappropriate.
Racism appears in all sorts of forms and too frequently. However, I firmly believe in redemptive actions and that racist actions cannot be considered within a vacuum. Education should be the first steps we as a community should take in response to racism, instead of jumping towards condemnation and punishment. That may sound idealistic and naive, but it is a belief that I hold strongly. It is important that we as a community continue to strive to educate others as well as ourselves so that we can truly tolerate one another and create the cohesive APA community that for so long has been so divisive.
However, it is also bad for us to let actions like this to continue. If education does not work, then the next step is to take more serious actions. Ignoring racism when it occurs is just as detrimental as being racist. I’m still admittedly naive and inexperienced, but I hope that these words are taken with weight
3) Although I’m pleased that the hardboiled blog has been getting more hits and has been receiving a lot more attention, I am largely disappointed with the reasons for this jump in activity. As many in the comments have cited, the post was condemning all forms of hatred, especially senseless hatred. Although racism is always terrible, fighting racism with further hateful speech perpetuates the problems and does not create meaningful solutions. So I, again, would like everyone to refer to the community rules that this blog will now be regulated by in order to prevent this sort of recklessness in the future
Finally, I encourage anyone to contact me at my email address, in the chance that people feel personally offended by the things I said and would like to shoot some angry comments directed specifically at me. I do not regret the things I wrote, though I do regret the actions and hurt feelings that occurred around them.
NOW, with all that being said, I hope people continue to visit this blog for future updates. Like I mentioned before, hopefully more of core will participate in blogging once finals are over and we’re at home with nothing better to do than blog more!
