kim's appointment at dartmouth inspires racist email

This is really unfortunate, but I'm not surprised in the slightest.... Soon after Dartmouth College announced that it had appointed Dr. Jim Yong Kim as the school's next president -- the Ivy League's first Asian American president -- the racist comments started flowing, including a widely-distributed email from the Generic Good Morning Message (GGMM), a student-written/edited "tongue-in-cheek" daily news update: E-mail on Kim stirs controversy. Here's the email in question:

Date: March 3, 2009 11:06:39 AM EST
To: GOOD-MORNING@LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU
Subject: Good Morning

This is the Generic Good Morning Message for March 3, 2009.

Yesterday came the announcement that President of the College James Wright will be replaced by Chinaman Kim Jim Yong. And a little bit of me died inside.

It was a complete supplies.

On July 1, yet another hard-working American's job will be taken by an immigrant willing to work in substandard conditions at near-subsistent wage, saving half his money and sending the rest home to his village in the form of traveler's checks. Unless "Jim Yong Kim" means "I love Freedom" in Chinese, I don't want anything to do with him. Dartmouth is America, not Panda Garden Rice Village Restaurant.

Y'all get ready for an Asianification under the guise of diversity under the actual Malaysian-invasion leadership instituted under the guise of diversity. It's a slippery slope we are on. I for one want Democracy and apple pie, not Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen. I know I sure as shit won't ever be eating my Hop dubs bubs with chopsticks. I like to use my own two American hands.

The author of the original e-mail apologized for "inappropriate" and "insensitive" comments in an e-mail to the GGMM listserv on Tuesday, saying that the comments were intended to be satirical. The GGMM staff also offered a follow-up apology, saying they regretted their lack of oversight. IvyGate's got a good roundup: Dartmouth Students Jump to Racist Conclusions About New President.

The email, written by anonymous GGMM intern "Lozar Theofilactidis," was allegedly a sad and pathetic attempt at being "humorous and satirical." Right. I'm sorry, you don't write all that racist bullshit without actually believing some it. I love how every time some ignorant ass thinks he's being clever, and writes some racist nonsense in a column, he then tries to pass it off as "satire."

Here we have a great moment, a reason to celebrate a significant achievement for an impressive and qualified Asian American... and some idiot decides celebrate by composing a tirade of Asian "jokes." That didn't take long, did it? Never mind Dr. Kim's inspirational work as a world health official, and his plans to bring that leadership to Dartmouth. To some, he'll always just be a Chinaman. That's racist!