UWEC Hmong students respond to racist "problems" sign

A couple of weeks ago, I shared this note that was posted in a dorm bathrooom stall by someone who obviously had some "problems" with her Hmong floor-mates at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

I recently heard from he resident assistant on the floor where the sign was posted. After waiting a month to see whether and how school officials would react, she and her peers decided to write a public statement to the university administration and the greater UWEC community.

Here's the letter:

"a lingering smell of Asian food."

Spotted this on Reddit... This email, sent to an Asian student last week from someone apparently representing University Housing at Georgia State (the particulars have been partially obscured, but I'm taking an educated guess).

So get this. The Asian student is singled out regarding a complaint about "a lingering smell of Asian food." The recipient is urged to "take care of this." Here's the text from the email, with a little bit of deductive construction:

this dorm mate has hmong "problems"

In the age of racist tweets and Facebook updates, people get lazy. You have to give some credit to the person who makes a good old-fashioned hand-written sign to communicate their passive-aggressive racial prejudice.

For example, this sign that was posted in a dorm bathroom stall at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, on a floor with many Hmong residents.

The author's got Hmong Problems. Note the us-versus-them distinction between Hmong and American -- as if someone who is Hmong couldn't possibly be American, because "American," of course, really means white.

Sure, a crappy sign is seemingly not as bad as hate violence or an outright racial slur, but situations like this usually give way to bigger ignorant bullshit. And it happens all the time on campuses around the country.