Alexandra Wallace has caused a firestorm of controversy and recrimination after she posted a Youtube video denouncing “Asians in the library.” The original video is below. The tirade attacks Asian students for talking on cellphones and even having their elderly parents show up on weekends to do their clothes and cook their food. The question is whether Wallace should be punished by UCLA, which is looking into the matter.
In the video, Wallace chastises Asians for bad manners on cellphones. She ends the video with “thanks for listening, have a nice day.”
The article below says that “[s]he is listed on examiner.com as an LA Style Examiner, where she is described as ‘an economics student at UCLA, with a passion for recession-friendly fashion.'” It further quotes a description of “[h]er background working in the beauty industry, along with modeling experience has given her insight into what looks great on the individual.”
Wallace has issued an apology:
“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.”
Wallace has reportedly received death threats.
There is some debate whether Wallace is a student at UCLA. In my view, it would be entirely inappropriate for university to punish a student for exercising her free speech in this way. While obnoxious, the statements of Wallace were made as an individual.
Source: Daily Mail
Jonathan Turley
last word she’ll ever hear should she visit a japanese steak house, “oops”.
Eryka,
“it would be entirely inappropriate for university to punish a student for exercising her free speech in this way”
Going against my own adage it seems: Don’t argue with fools, people may not see the difference.
This is inexcusable and there should be repercussions. Btw, I teach at a predominately white university and kids there, regardless of race talk on their cell phones in the library or the library common. Talking loud on the cell phone and in inappropriate places has become an “American” epidemic. And what business is it of hers that Asian parents come on the weekend to cook and clean for their kids. Sounds like somebody is a bit jealous. This girl has too much time on her hands. What an idiot.
Dumb, but it does serve one useful purpose. I’ve always wondered if I made the right decision choosing Cal over UCLA. The answer… yup.
The problem with having a forum where anyone can comment is that anyone can comment. We all say stupid things, most of us our just fortunate enough that they weren’t said in ways that could “go viral.” On the other hand, I do my best to keep it that way.
enoibob:
Enjoy your lunch.
I was in, the then ground breaking (1968), Afro-American History class at my high school. coming from a community that was about 90% white I was not completely unaware of cultural differences but was unaware of my own ignorance of them. The gentleman that taught the class occasionally had to deal with students totally unaware of their own ignorance. He usually handled it as a teaching moment.
While I don’t think we were ever as obtuse has this girl I think it would be easy enough to use this as a moment in which she, and many like her, could be enlightened. Punishing her will only serve as fodder for the “oh, us poor oppressed white people” faction of loons.
Have not been in the campus library in 30 years are student so stupid that they talk on cell phones in there?
Mespo:
Thanks for my lunch order today,LOL!!
“Hell, if my parents could have made General Tao’s Chicken like some of our Asian clients here in Richmond, I’d have sent a car for them every weekend and washed their clothes.”
My niece from Chicago is pre med at UCLA. Asian students comprise almost 50 percent of the students at the school. I have heard from her about some anti-Asian sentiment at the school among a small number of students.
I wouldn’t punish her just put her to work in an Asian business for a week. She’d learn a lot about hard work, sacrifice, family commitment, and emphasizing all of these virtues in your life. She may be beyond education, but it’s worth a try to extend to her the generosity of spirit she seems so incapable of possessing.
Hell, if my parents could have made General Tao’s Chicken like some of our Asian clients here in Richmond, I’d have sent a car for them every weekend and washed their clothes.
I’m with Tony Sidaway on this one … I could only take a few seconds of the video.
I also really like “It’r fudgednt” … it just looks sooo expressive …
I agree with OS and TS – Dim and self-centered? Absolutely. Immature? Duh. Stupid? Hell yes. Her parents must be proud of their little girl …
If she was bothered by the cellphone calls in the library, and parents doing their kids laundry and cooking for them on weekends, there are proper avenues to register complaints. Posting a video on YouTube is a recipe for ridicule; a recipe for disaster. She has to live with it for the rest of her life. Deservedly so, too.
How on earth somebody so thoughtless and shallow made it to university I will never understand. Don’t they have minimal entrance requirements, entrance exams, interviews and whatnot?~Tony Sidaway
______—————————————–
It’r fudgednt, Mr. Sidaway, that you just do not understand American Manners……
and,
It’r fudgednt is my new favorite term…as soon as I learn to pronunciate it properly….
🙂
It is not illegal to be stupid and immature. Nor is it illegal to make a fool of oneself in public. That is probably a good thing in some respects, otherwise our courts and jails would be even more crowded.
I fail to see how a college or university could get away with punishing her, any more than they could punish her for posing for a centerfold in Playboy. This is not a private school, which probably could get away with such punishment.
I have always preached to my kids and grandchildren that whatever you do, whether it be a sin of omission or commission, be prepared for it to be on the front page of tomorrow’s paper.
I am constantly amazed at the lack of judgment of many young people in what they will put on social media web sites.
“It’r fudgednt” is apparently my telephone’s way of saying “it’s evident”. Apologies for my haphazard proofreading.
I just watched a minute or two of this video. It’r fudgednt from the start that this is an extremely dim and self-centred young person, with the kind of repulsive opinions you would expect from somebody who hasn’t been properly raised and finds herself encountering, for the first time, people from different cultures.
I’m not surprised it’s gone viral, not surprised her stupid opinions have caused offence. But now, I just want to forget it.
How on earth somebody so thoughtless and shallow made it to university I will never understand. Don’t they have minimal entrance requirements, entrance exams, interviews and whatnot? But she doesn’t claim to speak for the faculty or the students of UCLA so that’s that.
Maybe this will be the most salient learning experience she derives from university: that it isn’t all about her. Maybe that’s something she could not have learned in any other way. University of Youtube.
sorry: “or made the complaint sans specific race.”
(Wish there was an edit function).
She should have had an Asian friend state the obvious…or she have made the complaint sans specific race. Its obvious to me that she has at minimum an undercurrent of racist attitude running through her comments.
I’m sure she’s learning something from all this.
Hey…enionbob….Was she really wrong….or isn’t it kinda of funny in one breath and yet repulsive in the next….Imagine a SNL Skit with John Belushi doing something like this….or even Rose Anna Dana… We all have the right to either listen of just walk away…and ignore it….
BYT, I do think it is rude to talk on the cellphone and being in the library… or take this scenario…you are at a fat food restaurant…and the person in front of you regardless of ethnicity is alone and talking on their cell…they are up but can’t make up the mind so they have to consult with the person on the cell’s blue tooth…. and you are in a hurry… rude?
Westboro church decision was the right result but wrong execution…I am still surprised with Scalia and his part of that decision….what is becoming of him….You know even Lee Atwater called Dukakis to apologize to him before he died….
I do not agree with her decision to do this….but do I really watch YouTube unless its sent to me some how? No…But I suppose there are groupies….
“Supreme Court Rules In Favor of Westboro Church”
Would I be wrong in saying that decisions have consequences?