UCLA girl a.k.a blogging is totally writing

So.

UCLA girl posted a video of herself on March 14, showing herself to be the extremely intelligent person she is.

Transcript:

Okay, so here at UCLA it's finals week.

So we know that I'm not the most politically correct person so don't take this offensively. I don't mean it toward any of my friends I mean it toward random people that I don't even know in the library. So, you guys are not the problem.

The problem is these hordes of Asian people that UCLA accepts into our school every single year, which is fine. But if you're going to come to UCLA then use American manners.

So it used to really bug me but it doesn't bother me anymore the fact that all the Asian people that live in all the apartments around me -- their moms and their brothers and their sisters and their grandmas and their grandpas and their cousins and everybody that they know that they've brought along from Asia with them - comes here on the weekends to do their laundry, buy their groceries and cook their food for the week. It's seriously, without fail. You will always see old Asian people running around this apartment complex every weekend. That's what they do. They don't teach their kids to fend for themselves. You know what they don't also teach them, is their manners.

Which brings me to my next point. Hi, in America we do not talk on our cell phones in the library. I swear every five minutes I will be -- okay, not five minutes, say like fifteen minutes -- I'll be in like deep into my studying, into my political science theories and arguments and all that stuff, getting it all down, like typing away furiously, blah blah, blah, and then all of a sudden when I'm about to like reach an epiphany... Over here from somewhere, "Ooooh Ching Chong Ling Long Ting Tong, Ooohhhhh."

Are you freaking kidding me? In the middle of finals week? So being the polite, nice American girl that my momma raised me to be, I kinda just gave him what anybody else would do that kinda like, [puts finger up to lips in a "shh" motion]. "You know it's a library, like, we're trying to study, thanks!" And then it's the same thing five minutes later. But it's somebody else, you know -- I swear they're going through their whole families, just checking on everybody from the tsunami thing. I mean I know, okay, that sounds horrible like I feel bad for all the people affected by the tsunami, but if you're gonna go call your address book like you might as well go outside because if something is wrong you might really freak out if you're in the library and everybody's quiet like you seriously should go outside if you're gonna do that.

So, thanks for listening, that was my rant. I just -- even if you're not Asian you really shouldn't be on your cell phone in the library but I've just never seen that happen before so thank you for listening and have a nice day.

You know, I originally said I wouldn't address this -- but again, blogging is writing, right?

Couple of points:

As expected, she will not be expelled. This somehow doesn't surprise me. I don't even know if I want her to be expelled for something so relatively minor in the grand scheme of things, but I have to admit that the fact that she's going to get a degree in political science just kind of makes me want to cry.

 

Mmm. UCLA zealously protects free expression and their politics, oops sorry, policies do not punish free speech.

 

First of all, UCLA, I think you really need to reconsider how effective your education is. Really. Secondly, I'm glad that I now know that UCLA is effectively not a safe environment to be in for me as a person of colour because I cannot rely on you to do the right thing when someone is creating a hostile environment for others of colour because of their racist paradigms. Lastly, I'm glad now that you're not expelling her, because really, you two deserve each other.

Also, people seem to have problems understanding the concept of free speech. Look, just because she can't get arrested for saying dumb things doesn't mean that she can say anything she wants without consequences. There is a difference.

 

Actually, apparently she can say stupid shit like that and get away with it. My bad.

I also appreciate how this, ahem, creature's professor says that:

...the response has been far more egregious...they responded with greater levels of intolerance

Really? Frustrated by the campus' violent response? And greater levels of intolerance?

I suppose, if you take the death threats seriously, then it's a greater level of intolerance -- but is anyone really going to carry through with their death threats against her? Anyone with even a smidgen of sense will realize that this will only be playing into her racism and give all of us a bad name.

Insofar as what was actually done? She got a minute taste of the hostility she was raining down on other people. Hardly enough for sympathy but now it seems like public sentiment will veer to her side.

Oh well.

What is ultimately really funny is her apology:
 

She says: "I cannot explain what possessed me to approach the subject as I did..."

Well, her father explains it for her on Facebook before her plans all went downhill:

"My daughter wants to start a blog...She's asking for domain suggestions for 'Asians on their cellphones in the library!' She's shooting videos as I write."

My take on it?

 

I think she was trying to monetize her racism and it backfired on her. 

 

Hysterical. Really hysterical. 

 

I'd be a little more peeved that she's not getting punished by the school, but again, they deserve each other, and I'm eager to see what kind of employment opportunities will be open to her when she graduates next year. 

 

Cynical me says that she'll probably still have no problem finding employment, but one can always hope, yeah?