Asians in the Library

COMMENTARY: This March, University of California, Los Angeles, student Alexandra Wallace shot to viral Internet infamy with her offensive “Asians in the Library” video. In three short minutes posted onto YouTube, Alexandra bemoans the “hordes” of Asian students accepted at UCLA. She urges them to adopt “American manners.” She complains about Asians making mobile phone calls in the library to family impacted by the recent tsunami in Japan. And to top it all off, she offers a mocking interpretation of Asian languages, complete with “ching chong ling long ting tong.” One million video views and a firestorm of racial backlash later, count me as one of those offended. In fact, I am triply offended as someone who is Asian, an immigrant, and a UCLA alumnus. But as a gay man, I was even more disheartened. While “Asians in the Library” depicted racial intolerance, it should also ring loud wake-up calls to the LGBT community.

First, gays and lesbians must remain vigilant to win the hearts and minds of today’s “Millennial Generation.” Our community believes that today’s younger population is more exposed to gay peers and media imagery, is more tolerant, and thus will support us in greater numbers. Certainly, polling data indicates that younger age translates into greater support for marriage equality and other gay rights. But we should not take the “youth vote” for granted. While Millennials may be more open-minded, we can’t rely on them to automatically be champions of gay rights. We must still educate Generation Y about equality and tolerance.

Alexandra Wallace proves that point. She is growing up at a time of greater racial diversity in America. Until she withdrew from UCLA due to the firestorm from her video, she was attending a major metropolitan university surrounded by students of many ethnicities, including yes, plenty of Asians. Even back when I attended UCLA in the early 1990s, it was already jokingly nicknamed the “University of Caucasians, Lost among Asians.” Today, the Asian population on campus is apparently even greater (some 37% of UCLA’s 26,000 undergraduates.) If exposure to minorities supposedly makes you more accepting, Alexandra’s time at UCLA should have turned her into one of the most Asian-friendly people in the country. To the contrary, it obviously brought out latent disdain of foreigners, people who don’t use “American manners.” And to think, Alexandra called this “an attempt to produce a humorous YouTube video.” She cannot be serious.

I’m sure Alexandra does not represent the opinion of all, or even most, Caucasian youth. But I’m also certain that Alexandra is not alone, and there are others her age with equally intolerant beliefs. They just haven’t been shortsighted enough to record them on YouTube for the world, and oh yeah, future employers, to see.