From the Alvin Lin blog, by Alvin Lin on 2008-08-24 10:07 PM (original link)

I was recently a facilitator at this camping orientation event in which nearly all incoming 1st yr MBA students attended (a few hundred people). The night before it ended there was a big night of skits performed by all the 1st years, who were broken up into smaller teams. A panel of 3 judges (2nd yr students) gave scores and comments after each skit.

Some of the skits were hilarious, others were offensive/retarded. One skit had some sexist jokes offensive to women, which the crowd booed, and the judges gave all 1’s (the lowest score). The same booing and low scores occurred for a skit that made fun of this one female classmate for holding up the entire class during an earlier event. Another skit had some offensive material towards Blacks which was also booed and received low scores.

However, one skit team had a blatantly racist Asian penis joke, and it was even co-enacted with the help of this Japanese international student. This team ended up tied for the highest scores, with no booing or negative reaction from the judges. Only me and one other person were furious at the joke, and also at the indifference towards it by the crowd.

Also, afterwards this Asian female international student came up to me and asked me why American women were willing to be a part of those skits that had sexist jokes towards women. I had to explain to her that the US is a white male dominated country, so whatever they think is okay was the norm.

(more...)

That’s so...sad.

Surprise surprise.

Weren’t there other Asians in the audience?

Did you do anything about it?

I don’t think there’s anything you can do.

Yes, there is a double standard, isn’t there? People get booed for making racist jokes against African-Americans, but somehow, with Asians (born here or elsewhere) it’s OK.

Kudos to Alvin for recognizing a sexist joke too! And brother, I know you didn’t mean anything by this, but using “retarded” as a descriptor of a stupid skit could be offensive too. Ironically, I know people with mental disabilities who are more aware of the feelings of others than some yahoos with “normal” intelligence. Case in point--the yahoos who did the racist/sexist skit!