the controversy over u.penn's punch bowl

I've been meaning to write about this for a couple of weeks, but got a little sidetracked by the nonsense over in Colorado. But along similar lines, there's been quite a bit controversy brewing over at the University of Pennsylvania, over a recent issue of the student humor publication The Punch Bowl. Once again, more racist jokes in guise of everybody's favorite cover-your-ass term, "satire."

The edition in question, jokingly titled "The Diversity Issue," is a giant celebration of all sorts of racial jokes, particularly directed at Asians. I took a look at it, and it's pretty stupid. For instance, there's a feature called "Where Asians Don't Belong," which is basically an illustrated list of Asian stereotypes. Places where Asians apparently don't belong are in Math 104, in a panties drawer, on the basketball court, at a frat party, at Crown Fried Chicken, behind the wheel of a car, participating in drinking games, under the Button, and in DuBois. You don't really have to be a U.Penn student to get the idea.

There's more where that came from. Lots of jokes at the expense of Asians, because, you know, Asians aren't the kind to speak up about these kinds of things, right? No. As you may have guessed, the issue offended quite a few members of the University's community. Here's a good opinion piece by student Benjamin Alisuag in The Daily Pennsylvanian, where he takes on the Punch Bowl's Asian jokes: Finding where APAs belong. And here's a response to the response: Punch Bowl hullabaloo is misdirected. One things for sure—this has definitely sparked quite a few discussions about race and humor, whether the Punchbowl intended to or not.