Racism and ethnic hatreds are alive, well, and thriving. No secret here. The big news would be if they were not. The election of an African-American as POTUS has brought repressed feelings breaching from the depths. From the Joe “You Lie!” Wilson’s outburst at President Obama’s first State of the Union Address to the monkey images and allusions of the paranoid, goony right, the outing of deep-seated prejudices is becoming more acceptable as means of public expression of political dissent. I won’t even get into the talk radio market where this sort of thing has been going on far too long. The removal of the public stigma to racist demonstrations is perhaps the most disturbing development. We would like to think we are getting better, though the opposite appears to be true. This behavior is hardly confined to the U.S. A good argument can be made that it is much worse in may other countries: China’s handling of Tibetan and Uighur upheavals over the past two years is hardly befitting of an emergent superpower, and the European Union has seen dramatic displays of violence against their rising minority populations.
And now this one in a high school in South Philadelphia: Students ‘Strike’ After Attacks At S. Philly High
Approximately 50 students at South Philadelphia High School didn’t go to class Monday following an attack on a group of Asian students.
Parents and students were upset by reports a group of Asian students were targeted by their peers last week.
According to Xu Lin, a counselor at the Chinatown Development Corporation, one Asian student was attacked after school on Wednesday. Lin said the attack continued Thursday inside the school and later outside the school.
According to Lin at least 26 students have been harassed or attacked, some needing medical assistance. The students plan to “stay away from the school for about a week, so their message is heard.”
2 responses so far ↓
1 Matthew Stinson // Dec 8, 2009 at 11:40 am
You’re giving readers the impression that these attacks are tied to the American right wing or the election of President Obama and that anti-Asian violence is a new trend. I blame the reporter for (deliberately?) leaving out the race of the attackers. Other news stories about South Philly HS that go into detail about who is harassing the Asian students.
The school is 70% African-American and the attackers are African-American. News reports say that these kind of attacks have been going on for years and have only recently increased in intensity. During my lifetime, African-American on Asian violence has been far more common than white on Asian violence, and so this fits into an overall pattern. Sad, but this data point doesn’t support your thesis that racist protest has been legitimized in America.
2 bhb // Dec 16, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Of course we’ve been following the news, now that our grandson is in the Philadelphia school system. He was formerly in a suburban school district, Neshaminy, when he lived with us, where there was no tolerance for violence. The police are immediately called in Neshaminy, even with small one-on-one fights. Now our grandson claims he’s learning to be tough. It is not an ideal thought. Anyway, the school in the news is not the one he goes to. And it should be noted that the Asian response of a boycott is an intelligent and mature maneuver, as opposed to forming gangs and fighting back. Embedded in the incident is a significant sign of hope.
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