Update: Alexandra Wallace and Asians in the Library

Couple of quick updates to my last post:

Parodies/Responses. Have. Run. Rampant! Also, it has its own website now -- asiansinthelibrary.com -- with all the latest news on the matter. Notably, Huffington Post, LA Weekly,  and 8Asians have reported on the story. UCLA Chancellor Block has released a video statement on behalf of the school. And the pièce de résistance is the official statement released by Alexandra Wallace herself.

"Clearly the original video posted by me was inappropriate. I cannot explain what possessed me to approach the subject as I did, and if I could undo it, I would. I'd like to offer my apology to the entire UCLA campus. For those who cannot find it within them to accept my apology, I understand."

Additionally, I just ordered my own Ching Chong Ting Tong shirt. 50% of all ALL (due to popular demand) profits will be donated to the American Red Cross in support of the Japanese tsunami victims! (Also found another, apparently unrelated shirt at Tiger Mother Cub.)

Thanks for all the traffic and taking the time to read my two cents on the topic. It was great to write about something controversial again. (I haven't done so since I defended the Facebook newsfeed. Coincidentally, another Facebook article was going to be my first real post before this came along.)

A couple of people seemed to think I was taking too passive of a stance regarding the Asians in the Library incident, so I wanted to add a couple more words about it.

Of course, I strongly agree that we need to stand up for the Asian American community, but we need to do it in a way that calls for respect. Do we want people to think that the first or only way Asian Americans respond to someone who puts up a video of racist and insensitive content is by calling her a b**** or threatening her life? We individually have the responsibility of upholding the collective Asian American community. We have a voice as Asian Americans and we have had to work very hard for it. Please don't undo the work by sinking to the bigoted levels of other people. Like Hyphen said, don't fight fire with fire.