The story only got muted coverage in the mainstream national press, but for those who caught it, it was hard to believe. Kenneth Eng, a regular contributor to the San Francisco weekly newspaper, AsianWeek, who calls himself an “Asian supremacist,” penned a ranting column entitled “Why I Hate Blacks,” and inexplicably, the editors allowed it to run. Not surprisingly, the column provoked anger and outrage not only among African-Americans but also from the very community of Asian-Americans the newspaper claims to represent.
The Feb. 23 column was taken down from AsianWeek’s website and replaced by a lengthy apology for offense caused by its publication. But the managing editors initially refused to comment in the press about their role in allowing the opinion piece to run.
Finally in a Feb. 28 news conference, editor at large Ted Fang apologized publicly and announced the decision to fire the columnist, Eng. “The failing of our editorial process in allowing this piece to go forward was an insensitive and callous mistake that should never have been made by our publication,” Fang said.
Are you convinced? I’m not sure that I am. That’s a hell of a mistake for the paper that calls itself “The Voice of Asian America.”
I hope the advertisers will “punish” the paper for its stupidity (it’s distributed free so people can’t cancel their subscriptions in protest) by cancelling ads. It’s hard to respect a publication that allows hate and ignorance to parade as legitimate opinion. I think the credibility of the paper is irreversibly damaged, and rightfully so.
