AsianWeek Apologizes Following Racist Column Controversy

Announces author's firing, promises editorial review, plans town-hall meeting

AAV Staff

February 28, 2007 - The San Francisco-based newspaper, AsianWeek, on its website today issued an apology and a rejection of the "biased views" of its columnist, Kenneth Eng.

The apology comes following an uproar over Eng's February 23 column, "Why I Hate Blacks," which has since been pulled from the website.  The column drew fire from media, civil rights organizations, and Asian-American public figures, as well political leaders such as Nancy Pelosi and the city's Mayor Gavin Newsom.  Within the APA community, petitions against AsianWeek have circulated, as have calls for editorial changes and criticisms of the paper's publishers, the prominent Fang family.

In rant, Eng enumerates his "reasons" for hating Black people:

"Blacks hate us. Every Asian who has ever come across them knows that they take almost every opportunity to hurl racist remarks at us."

Or this: "Contrary to media depictions, I would argue that blacks are weak-willed. They are the only race that has been enslaved for 300 years."

Or more: "Blacks are easy to coerce. This is proven by the fact that so many of them, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, tend to be Christians."

Followers of the column observe that the racism in the piece is blatant, but par for the course for this angry, 20-something writer.  As the San Francisco Chronicle points out, Eng's past pieces have included "Proof That Whites Inherently Hate Us" and "Why I Hate Asians".

In an effort to address the backlash against it, AsianWeek has been making moves to hold interethnic dialogues.  As reported in the Chronicle,  the paper said it plans to hold a town hall-style forum at the Willie L. Brown Jr. Institute on Politics and Public Service. 

As reported on Richard Prince's Journal-isms, the paper's editor-at-large, Ted Fang, also apologized at news conference with the Rev. Amos C. Brown, head of the San Francisco branch of the NAACP.  Fang reportedly said there that Eng would be fired.

However, a good deal of the buzz and anger in Asian-American and media circles has surrounded the question of how such a piece ever made it through an editorial review process to see publication in the first place, and criticisms have been aimed at both the Fang family and the paper's editor in chief, Samson Wong.  For its part, the paper's editors seem to be taking the backlash seriously and preparing to clean house.  In the unsigned statement published today, AsianWeek wrote:

We will be reviewing that editorial process and making any changes necessary to prevent this from ever happening again. The condemnation of this serious lapse in editorial judgment was rightfully taken by civic and community leaders and organizations. . . . [W]e are humbled and overwhelmed at reader response not only chastising our editorial process, but strongly urging our paper to sever all ties to this contributor. We have heard the call and Mr. Eng has been terminated from writing for the paper.

Although Eng's column has been removed from the site, a complete scan is available for viewing at Richard Prince's Journal-isms at the link below.

Further Readings

• AsianWeek's Statement and Apology
• Richard Prince's Journal-isms: "'Why I Hate Blacks' Writer Suspended"
• S.F. Chronicle, Leslie Fulbright: "Asian paper's 'I Hate Blacks' column assailed"
• C.N. Le: "AsianWeek’s Racist Opinion Column"

Related Readings of Interest @ AAV

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  It's easy to treat discrimination as an acceptable cost of American life, but progress demands more
• Ghettopoly Holds Shameful Lessons for Business and Consumers
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  Directly or not, "people like us" help stereotypes persist, too