hardboiled

The Dartmouth Debacle

hardboiled breaks down the controversy behind the racist email directed toward the Ivy League's first Asian American president

To most, Jim Yong Kim, who holds a dual M.D./Ph.D and was named one of TIME's 100 most influential, is a luminary. To Dartmouth student Tommy Brothers, he is just another "chinaman."

On March 2nd, Dr. Kim was appointed as Dartmouth College's next president, making him the first Asian American president of an Ivy League institution. His reception, however, was far from welcoming. Here, hardboiled brings you a look at the situation at hand.

1. The Offensive Email

The day after Kim's appointment, the school's Generic Good Morning Message email listserv sent out a "satirical" response to Dr. Kim's appointment, with witty gems like, "Dartmouth is America, not Panda Garden Rice Village Restaurant." The writer, Tommy Brothers, uses all the typical racist jokes: the Asians-have-funny-names bit, a lame accent imitation, another-american-job-taken-by-an-asian! quip, and oh-so-clever references to Chinese restaurants and action flicks. And of course, Brothers felt it acceptable to refer to Korean American Dr. Kim as a Chinaman, a racial slur that reaffirms decades of racial injustice and struggle. My question is, how did this email get approved by the editors to be sent?

2. The Apology Email

Let's examine the classic "I didn't intend to offend anyone!" excuse. Brothers writes, "I hope you can all understand that my intent was never one of malice against the Asian community, but an extremely crass attempt at hyperbolic satire." How can anyone make these comments without knowing that it's blatantly racist and offensive? The sheer ease at which Brothers makes these remarks reveals the depth of his ignorance. He then offers to speak to anyone that he has offended, but only "after finals." Such compassion! Such remorse! 3. Dr. Kim's Passive Response

Now, as the Ivy League's first Asian president, there are a lot of barriers to be broken, especially at a school that is only about 14% Asian American. Dr. Kim's response to the debacle should be a sign of the changes to come. Then, he throws this in our angry faces: "But I also don't want this lapse in judgment to limit his prospects for the future. Dartmouth students are very talented, but we all make mistakes - especially when we are young." Seriously? Believing that our lives should be like ones from Gossip Girl is a mistake we make when we're young. Sending a bigoted message to over 1,000 subscribers is just plain stupid. Racism is a deep-rooted problem, and in order to affect any real change, real consequences and proactive actions need to be taken.

Now I get that Dr. Kim's interests are now aligned closely with those of the college, and all this bad publicity is detrimental to the college's reputation, but he needs to understand that his influence is a powerful thing. By addressing the problem of racism, Kim could be making progressive strides toward greater diversity and understanding at Dartmouth. However, he only touches the subject by telling other Asian Americans: "I understand your pain, and my sincere hope is that this incident will lead to better understanding and greater compassion for the experience of our entire community."

4. Dartmouth's Past

In retrospect, this controversy isn't a huge surprise; the college has had other instances of published racism in the past. Just last year, the campus newspaper published a comic that attacked an Asian American student with both racist and sexist jokes. With the same clever depiction of Asians, with you know, our prominant rice hats and slanted eyes, two fourth year Dartmouth students attacked a female Asian American student named Bonnie Lam. The editor-in-chief has since apologized for the comic's obvious racist, sexist, and just plain ignorant undertones. No one was really punished, aside from the discontinuance of the comic, and everything was pushed under the rug to be forgotten. It's quite shocking how quickly another racist oversight can take place. Clearly, this method of forgive-and-forget isn't working.

5. The Future

After the email was first sent out, the Dartmouth Review called it a "hilariously over-blown situation" and one that "scores somewhere between the Rape of Nanking and Japanese internment on the Richter Scale of injustice." What. The. Hell. It's ignorant comments like these that make it clear that it's not just one student's bigotry that is tainting this historic moment, but the culture of racism that exists at the college. Since when is it acceptable to alleviate racism with more racism? We can only hope that Dr. Kim steps up to the challenge of really bringing change to campus, instead of sitting back and allowing racism to fester.