pieces of grace

By now pretty much all of my Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter friends have seen the “Asians in the Library” video by UCLA student Alexandra Wallace lambasting Asians for speaking too loudly in the library, bringing everyone and their mother to do laundry for them on weekends, and needing to step outside the library if they’re freaking out over “the tsunami thing.” Yup, she said some pretty darn racist and offensive things.  So here are some of my thoughts, outlined in list form, because everyone knows it’s so much easier to say things when you say them in a psuedo-organized fashion. I seriously doubt anyone really cares that much about what I think of this incident, but these are some things that I feel very strongly about, because as much as I want to hate on her for the things she said, I don’t think that hate is going to solve anything, and I honestly think the girl could use some love right now.

1. My first thought after watching the video was, “Dang, I feel sorry for this girl. She’s going to get owned.” And she is getting owned pretty badly right now, because unfortunately for her, there are tons of other people who say and have said just as offensive things. They were just smart enough to not post a Youtube video about it. To be completely honest, I guess I wasn’t as offended by the stuff she said in the video because I had heard those type of comments before from girls at my high school and kids at my elementary school. They weren’t always very politically correct either, and I have a very clear memory of two particular girls making racist comments about Asians but being completely unaware that they were being offensive. And these comments were certainly not a reflection of the girls’ character in any way. It was just something they just said in passing without really thinking. Alexandra Wallace is not the first or only person in the world to have these thoughts. She’s just now taking a giant blow for all of them because she stupidly made her thoughts and contact information very, very public.

2. Though almost every part of the video was pretty bad, one of the worst moments was the “ching chong” part. People also said this to me a lot as a joke back when they were young junior highers and blissfully unaware of its racist implications. Obviously, Alexandra Wallace is not a junior higher, so that does not excuse any of her words, but the fact remains that she is a college student. She’s still young and probably did not realize the full extent of what she said. There is no doubt that she should have known better and is completely responsible for her words. But she took the video off her page pretty soon after she posted it, probably after she realized what she had just done. I’m not defending her in any way, but I do think these are things people need to consider and take into context amidst all their vilification.

3. If I’m truly angry about any issues surrounding the video, it’s the objectifying comments people are making on her video and UCLA student response videos. Alexandra Wallace is hot. Yay, we get it.  She’s a model (a model that will probably not be having such a great career now, but that’s beside the point). Of course she’s hot. Now stop commenting on the size of her chest or talking about how ugly other UCLA girls are in comparison to her because that has nothing to do with the issue and the dialogue people are having about this video.

4. Her annoyance is not completely unjustified. In fact, the video would have been perfectly okay if she had not directed her rant specifically at Asians and been so incredibly insensitive and tactless about the tsunami in Japan. I can understand how annoying it is when I need quiet and people are talking loudly on a phone. But the fact that she turned it into a point of cultural difference is pretty unjustifiable. People need quiet in the library, and there are Asians and Americans and even Asian-Americans (harharhar) who sometimes just are either talking to their friends or talking on the phone too loudly. I hope this doesn’t incite weird backlash of people speaking super loudly in the library now, because that would just be a little ridiculous.

Okay, so those are just some of my thoughts. I don’t think any of what she said is right or excusable. But I do feel bad for the girl as she is showing up on legit online news blogs and everyone’s newsfeeds and Tumblr dashboards. I hope and pray that before people hate, they consider how much she has had to deal with already. This is likely something that will follow her for the rest of her life, and she is probably already extremely sorry. So give her some LOVE and UNDERSTANDING. Because she needs it. Even if she’s not sorry, give her love. Because she is a fellow human being and has lost much dignity over this video. You can help her reclaim some of it. As an Asian-American girl, then, my ultimate response to the video is this: After all this hate, she deserves some love.