You can hear it in the air... it's the calm before the storm. President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad comes to campus this Monday.

And the beauty of this? As a club (maybe not as individuals), the Asian American Alliance just doesn't care. The political tsunami descending in two days upon this campus, in this particular instance, means little for us. We see the controversy surrounding the presence of Ahmadinejad an issue based in international politics, with few ramifications for Asian Americans.

We do invite Middle Eastern and Muslim Americans - also Asian Americans - to voice their thoughts about how this event impacts them.

It might be ironic that the brunt of our work is typically battling what we see as apathy and ignorance on campus. While trying to break the stereotypes of the politically apathetic Asian American student, we try to encourage participation and engagement from our peers in the issues unraveling around us.

But at what point do our politics meet that of our peers? If all communities (especially communities of color) have unique issues important to them, is this one out of our reach? Or are we indeed expected to make this issue relevant to us?

Last October when the Minutemen protests turned into a political incident, AAA had a pretty obvious stance. Our natural concern with issues of immigration necessitated a stance against the presence of Jim Gilchrist. Our ties to the students in protest reinforced our position. This weekend, we cannot say the same for Ahmadinejad's arrival on campus.

This does not mean that we'll have nothing to say. (Seeing a Middle Eastern woman rip down flyers near Low Library yesterday made a powerful impression on us.) What we will say, however, will probably concern more the reactions of our own peers than the objections to the presence of this Iranian president.

So keep posted. If your reaction to Ahmadinejad is indeed closely meshed with your identity or your views as an Asian American, feel free to share in the comments. We'll also do our part to make pertinent observations about this campus in the few days ahead of us.

Apathy is never a great thing, but sometimes it's the only thing that makes sense.

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Below is our statement about Mahmoud's coming:

On Thursday, September 20th, a representative from the Asian American Alliance participated in a discussion with members of the administration (including President Bollinger) over Ahmadinejad's arrival at Columbia on Monday. The discussion examined the impact that his presence would have on the student body and on many student groups that AAA has worked with in the past.

As a result, AAA sees the need to inform students who care about this issue of what their options are:

If you would like more information on this event, to be informed on what's been going on, or to view this event via webcast, please e-mail the AAA chair at: aaachair@gmail.com.

If you wish to submit questions to Mr. Ahmadinejad in advance of the forum on Monday, please e-mail: worldleaders@columbia.edu. A few of these questions will be randomly selected and asked among questions from audience members during the forum.

If you feel more strongly about this issue and are planning to personally attend this event on Monday (whether it be inside during Ahmadinejad's speech or outside at the rally) and would like to be fully informed of your options as supporters or as protestors, you can also email the AAA chair at: aaachair@gmail.com

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WHY ARE WE TELLING YOU THIS?

AAA recognizes that there historically exists a great disconnect between the Columbia administration and students. We observe the administration's not hearing students' demands when large campus events are programmed. The ways in which this problem manifests itself are evident in many groups' current struggles: the Manhattanville expansion, ethnic studies, racial profiling, and financial aid -- AAA recognizes that these issues affect the students of the general body.

Since it is important that the students' voices are not lost or ignored when greater matters are involved, the aforementioned disconnect was brought up prominently in Thursday's discussion with President Bollinger. The administration's is improving its ability to listen to the student body, which is a step towards bettering relations by opening up lines of communication between you, us, and the administration during this momentous event.

Enjoy. Thank xkcd.com for its awesomeness.

[UPDATE 11:15pm] The New York Times has followed up its previous article with this one. There's a nice little quote hidden in there from Dara O’Rourke, associate professor of labor and environmental policy at UC Berkeley.

"Mattel used China as a scapegoat for its own problems and that the toymaker is now paying the price for that."

That quote says a lot about the Chinese exports scare, but forgets to note the racial issues involved. Namely, if Mattel were producing at the same price in any other country, would they have tried to use that country as a scapegoat just as they had with China? A related question would be, why did the country fall for it so easily?

Finding a scapegoat to avoid blame and dodge shareholder fallout is one issue, but there's clearly more to it. Maybe given national sentiments at the time toward Chinese exports for other regulatory violations (toothpaste, pet food) Mattel just thought they could get away with it? Or maybe they just shared the same sentiment?

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Earlier this morning, Mattel issued an apology to China (yes, to the entirety of China - thats a lot of apologies) for its excessive recall of toys from China.

"Mattel takes full responsibility for these recalls and apologizes personally to you, the Chinese people, and all of our customers who received the toys''

Debrowski, Mattel's executive vice president for worldwide operations, also acknowledged that the ''vast majority of those products that were recalled were the result of a design flaw in Mattel's design, not through a manufacturing flaw in China's manufacturers.'' A few other notable quotes from the New York Times...

Lead-tainted toys accounted for only a small percentage of all toys recalled, he said, adding that: ''We understand and appreciate deeply the issues that this has caused for the reputation of Chinese manufacturers."

... new research from two business professors shows that recalls due to problems with the U.S. maker's design accounted for the vast majority -- about 76 percent -- of the 550 U.S.toy recalls since 1988...

''if shifting manufacturing to China resulted in poorer quality goods, then the number of toys recalled due to manufacturing should be greater than the number recalled due to design,'' the report said. But that is not the case.

Mattel's apology reflects how the Chinese product scare has been blown out of proportion. Amid the series of recent China recalls, faults endemic to American design became attributed to Chinese manufacturing. Anyone who has paid attention to recent commentary on Chinese exports know that this is not the only consequence of "Yellow Paint Peril". The fact that Mattel issued the apology to China, as opposed to the specific manufacturers or even just Chinese manufacturers, reveals how this issue has not only affected the reputations of the manufacturers involved or even just Chinese industry, but rather China as a whole. I would extend that range to include Chinese outside of the P.R.C. as well.

There are certainly many regulatory problems in China and having worked in China I have seen some of these issues first-hand. Nonetheless, its important to consider why the Chinese product scare exploded the way it did. Why was it so easy for Mattel to overlook the design faults in their toys as they recalled millions of toys on the basis of lead paint added by Chinese manufacturers against Mattel standards? Discuss.

Beast Coasters, registration for the Boston Asian Students Intercollegiate Conference (BASIC) is now open. The conference itself will be on Saturday, October 13th at Harvard. Good excuse for a road trip, my friends.

Register here.

According to its website, the Boston Asian Students Intercollegiate Conference strives to:

• Unite Asian American college students from all over the Greater Boston area
• Establish a forum for participants to comfortably explore their culture and individuality
• Tackle political, economic, and social issues affecting our communities at both local and national levels
• Celebrate Asian Americans in arts and entertainment
• Develop long-lasting partnerships between students, community activists, and scholars
• Inspire participants to think outside of the box in forging the future of Asian America

David and I do not measure our Columbia/Barnard existences solely through AAA.

We still study and go to class. You are advised to follow suit.

(Written in the always quiet Lehman Library.)

(God, this keyboard is loud.)

In a new article about the Chinese toy boycott, the NYT so tactfully conjures up this image:



Doesn't a white Lego figurine carting off an Asian-featured Lego figurine strike you as ... what's the word... interesting, to say the least? (Xenophobic? No, it couldn't be!)

We, the Columbia University Asian American Alliance (AAA), acknowledge that on Friday, September 14th an incident occurred on 114th street and Broadway between officers of the New York Police Department (NYPD) and an Asian American student. Many accounts – including Monday's Columbia Spectator article (http://www.columbiaspectator.com/node/26717) – point to evidence of excessive force and racial bias among the officers of the NYPD against the student.

If the details concerning the police's racial overtones and the excessive use of force are true, we condemn this abuse of authority by the NYPD officers present.

Furthermore, if racial discrimination was indeed committed by those officers, AAA will take the necessary steps to move towards dialogue and action that will make these issues clear to the student body and general public.

Finally, we acknowledge that this incident may represent a larger problem within the NYPD and its treatment of people of color in New York City. In response to this, AAA would like to mobilize with other groups in the NYC area and student organizations on
campus to take measures to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future.

AAA recognizes that the student involved in this incident clearly violated New York State's zero-tolerance policy of drinking in public. However, AAA believes that regardless of the crime, the NYPD should not under any circumstances practice racial bias or excessive use of force.

Last night, an email was sent out to listserv of the Asian American Alliance Political Committee; in this e-mail, some private and sensitive information was released prior to consent from relevant parties. I should have made some things more clear and been more cautious with my actions, but an apology is definitely due to the recipients of this listserv and the individual involved.

(The message was in reaction to a meeting that I had a few minutes before with some writers of the Spectator. If hearing about the incident in stressed detail was not sobering enough, it didn't take me long to realize how personal this incident could become for our board due to our personal ties to the student and his friends.)

My intention was to acknowledge this complication and preempt personal feelings in a message to the AAA board and the Political Committee, in total composed of the board and a very small group of affiliate members and friends. That aaa_pc@columbia.edu reaches literally scores of students who do not belong in any Political Committee action or proceedings was something that I should have been aware of. But due to miscommunication and turnover problems, this was not let known to me. This error does not lessen the damage made by the message sent yesterday, and for this I give my apologies.

Immediate corrections are going to take place in order to keep confidential and personal information and plans of action between the members of the Asian American Alliance and its committee members.

We will be reforming the listserv for the Asian American Alliance Political Committee. If you wish to be a part of the Political Committee, please email Marilla Li at ml2573@barnard.edu. If you wish to be informed of the events and campaigns being coordinated by the Political Committee, please sign up for the Asian American Alliance General Body listserv.

For continuing updates on the proceedings of this incident and the investigation henceforth, please refer to The Columbia Spectator or The Blaaag, the weblog of the Asian American Alliance.

David Zhou

Update: Tuesday, 12:07 am

Those who passed by West Ramp Lounge today probably saw AAA & PC members gathered around a table, intently discussing our next line of action.

After some details were ironed out, The Blaaag Editors saw the need to correct a few things written earlier in this post:

1. As we discovered (and an anonymous reader so helpfully pointed out), the aaa_pc listserv spans a much larger group of readers than was originally known to us. Thus, the comment that "there are things that slip out of cracks" is not correct; those things were sent out to a huge group of people and so there were no "cracks" to slip out of.
   (For some reason, David burst into hysterics after reading that line.)
2. In regards to “immediate action” – David issued a public apology to those who received the e-mail disclosing the name of the student involved in this incident (which undoubtedly added to the spread of rumors). We are also drafting a public statement to be posted in the next issue of The Spectator.
3. To anyone who knows who the involved student is –he wishes to keep his privacy (as told by a liaison – NOT by the student himself). Admittedly, it’s the least that we can give him right now.
4. Needless to say, things have become a little less convoluted. However, AAA and The Blaaag are still not ready to disclose any more information until greater lines of action have been taken. (We are looking to get the administration in on this.)

As usual – when we learn more (and are allowed to tell), we’ll let you know.

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Two days ago a reader offered some constructive criticism to The Blaaag staff and, subsequently, to AAA:

Anonymous said...

how about investigating by asking the guy involved instead of hearsay? and it might be prudent to not send emails about the incident without contacting the guy first (especially with his personal information), either. have some common sense, please.

September 17, 2007 12:12 AM

David said...

The point of this post wasn't to spread around versions of a rumored story, but to point out the racism in the comments on a blog post.

In regards to prudence, this is an issue of haste on our part that we are working out this very moment...

September 17, 2007 3:03 AM

Marilla said...

Dear Anonymous:

Whoever it was that disclosed this personal information to you about the student involved, we sincerely apologize. As private as we try to keep our listserv e-mails, there are things that slip out of cracks (or are just outright told to the masses).

Please be aware that AAA has been doing as much as it can to get to the bottom of this issue. It does not in any shape or form mean that we are holding back from taking action. If you think we are slacking - be advised that there are some members of the board who have been communicating back and forth nonstop and contacing outside sources to find eye witnesses.

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Dear Readers:

There has been some expressed dissatisfaction from members of the campus community towards our lack of immediate action. It seems like we are "holding back". Here is a quote from another member trying to make clear the reasons of our so-called immobility (not counting the frantic e-mails and phone calls that have gone back and forth, inside/outside of AAA):

In terms of AAA not reacting appropriately, given that the Spec article was just published this morning and AAA had not contacted any direct eye witnesses, regardless of what was eventually published in the Spec this morning, any action last night would have been extremely foolish. (Note the comment on The Blaaag about releasing his name in email without his consent, which is unfounded as his name was only mentioned in the email to aaa@columbia.edu which is a PRIVATE email alias, but nevertheless shows the sensitivity of this information and how any more pre-emptive action by AAA could have been poorly received).

When things are a little less convoluted, AAA and The Blaaag staff will update you. We promise. The matter of the Spec article's quoting reliability is being investigated; we have considered contacting the involved student for his side of the story; and there might be a public statement involved.

According to the Spectator:

Crone said that Sohn had been "noticeably upset," but had not physically resisted the police in any way. "He wasn’t attacking the officers or [doing] anything apparently violent against them," Crone said.

Another observer—George Cen, SEAS ’08,—said that while the police were questioning Sohn, two white students walked by carrying 40s. The officers instructed the students to cover their drinks with brown paper bags, but did not detain them...

... As the incident progressed, a crowd gathered and the officers called for backup, witnesses said. Three more police cars arrived. According to Crone, one of the officers said to the crowd—composed mostly of Asian students—"Have you had too much sake tonight?"

Read more about it here.

This will not be left undiscussed.

Granted, Racialicious has covered most of this already; but it never hurts to spread the word.

The postcards speak for themselves.







Also, Frank (of Postsecret fame) says that his "favorite interviews have always been with university students." Could The Blaaag staff or someone else from Columbia/Barnard please get an interview and ask this willing man what he thinks about the inherent racism of these cards?

The incident referred to in the Bwog-comment post has indeed been verified. The Spectator is about to write an article about it, but we'll update you as soon as we can on anything we know. The Asian American Alliance is getting to the bottom of this very racial police confrontation.

In solidarity.