UC Irvine in Turmoil Over Video

Hat tip New University

A few days ago, I reported that the UC Irvine campus is experiencing a problem with a video produced by some students in a campus fraternity showing characters in blackface.

http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2013/04/controversy-at-uc-irvine-over-blackface.html

Below is a link to the UCI campus paper, New University, with several articles/op-ed's regarding the incident. The report of the controversy is on page 1. On page 9, there are three articles. One is a public apology by the fraternity (Lambda Theta Delta). Another is by a student, and the third is an open letter from the Black Student Union.


http://bluetoad.com/publication/?m=17734&l=1

As I remarked before, "blackface" is something from a by-gone era-the earlier part of the 20th century, when it was part of comedy and musical plays. No question it is offensive. In this case, the students who created the offense are Asian-American, as are at least half of the students at UCI. They are deeply sorry and apologetic. Whether they knew of the history of blackface, I don't know. At any rate, they sure do now. I am sure they will not make that mistake again.

I have been on the UCI campus since 1998, and I have never witnessed any expression of racism coming from our Asian-American students. They have made this campus a pleasant place to work in my view. This incident is unfortunate, but I think had they truly known the history of blackface, they would have been more sensitive.

I can only hope that in the future, this university will pay as much attention to the anti-Jewish acts and words that have visited this campus in the form of people like Mohammed al Asi, who in 2001, told a UCI audience, "You can take the Jew out of the ghetto, but you can't take the ghetto out of the Jew". Or the words of Abdul Alim Musa in 2006 when he told an audience at UCI that his religion was going to take over the US; "We want it all", he said then added, "but you Christians and Jews need not worry...." Or the words of  Amir Abdel Malik Ali, who virtually every May comes to UCI and points out "Zionist Jews", celebrates suicide bombers in Israel, and tells Jews in the audience that "We will defeat you" and "You Jews; Y'all the new Nazis". (In 2010, after the last statement, in which Ali also expressed support for Hamas, Hizbollah and Islamic Jihad, Chancellor Michael Drake finally issued a statement. (Talk about a who dun what, when, where, and why!)

When UC San Diego was in turmoil over the "Compton Cookout" and  a noose was found in their library in 2010, the head of the UCI Cross Cultural Center issued a campus wide statement expressing his concern for the welfare of students on the UCI campus. That was well and good, but when I sent him a letter suggesting he show similar concern for Jewish students at UCI who were experiencing anti-Semitism, I never received an answer.

Here's hoping the African-American and Asian-American students work it out. I think they will.