COMMENT: Will Purdue University Northwestern’s first Asian American president fire its racist chancellor in 2023?

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By Emil Guillermo

Oakland, with its new Asian American mayor, is one of the most diverse cities in America.

How many times do you think Mayor Sheng Thao, an Asian American of Hmong descent, has heard someone poke fun at her and all Asian Americans with an accented joke?

That’s why the racist comment from Thomas Keon, Chancellor and CEO of Purdue University Northwest really matters.

And the only person who can give us a sense of justice, ironically, is Dr. Mung Chiang, an Asian American immigrant from Hong Kong, who is set to become the next president of Purdue University on January 1.

This is a significant moment in Asian American history.

It all started on December 10 at the start of Purdue Northwest, just south of Chicago in Hammond, Ind. Asian. We know this because he admitted it during the act. The astonishing self-awareness of a racist.

Watch the video for full context if you missed it: (A keynote speaker ends, then Keon walks up and launches an anti-Asian slur) https://www.youtube.com/clip/UgkxmOYq9oO5PqPLA470oR2D1d2Umwib5VC-.

This situation could have been a teaching moment for the entire nation about Asian Americans and social justice, if handled correctly.

We are, after all, coming out of a three-year period where the #StopAAPIHate organization recorded over 11,000 AAPI hate cases. From minor transgressions to major transgressions, verbal slights to aggressive assaults sometimes resulting in death. It is the hatred that has emerged in American society since Donald Trump began scapegoating Asian Americans for what he called the Kung flu and the Chinese virus.

And Keon’s insults show us that he and the nation still don’t get it. Keon should have immediately resigned from his role as leader of an institution of higher learning.

It is an example that all of America must see.

No resignation

Instead, Keon, the accountant, was not held fully responsible for the harm caused by his public speaking. Four days after the insult, Keon finally issued some kind of bureaucratic apology on December 14, stating that the insult did not express his values ​​or the universities. The board, not wanting controversy, hastily agreed.

It was then that the faculty senate became furious and voted to demand Keon’s resignation. And when that didn’t happen, the majority of Purdue Northwests tenure-track and clinical faculty, including department heads and deans, gave Keon a vote of no confidence, 135 to 20.

It was his second vote of no confidence this year. And Keon still hasn’t quit.

And yet, the board’s attempts to save Keon’s job were extraordinary.

The funniest thing is how everyone knows their racist, and yet there’s such a willingness to brush it off like there’s no real offense.

African-American researcher John McWhorter of The New York Times defended Keon, acknowledging the racism but saying Keon should not lose his job or be forced into retirement.

It’s a kind of gaslight 2.0.

It happened; weren’t going to pretend it didn’t happen.

But were going to treat the abuser as if nothing had happened.

Everyone thinks of poor Chancellor Keon.

Nobody thinks of people like Vichar Ratanapakdee, the 84-year-old Thai man who was killed in San Francisco on January 28, 2021, after being knocked to the ground in a hate attack.

And he is only one victim among thousands. Hatred begins with an accent that alienates us and makes AAPIs vulnerable.

But Purdue’s board, while acknowledging the racism, wants to see a pattern in Keon’s behavior before going beyond a reprimand. The faculty disagree.

There should be consequences for his behavior, and a reprimand is not the answer, a tenured AAPI faculty member at PNW told me in an email on Tuesday. His behavior is a trigger for many and is still concerning. He should resign or be fired. I am still livid.

If the board does not act, then justice goes to Purdue’s next chairman, Dr. Mung Chiang.

He’s a top young academic, an immigrant from Hong Kong who went to Stanford, played engineering at Princeton and was lured to head Purdue’s engineering school for the past five years. More telling is his stint as science adviser to the xenophobic and racist Trump administration.

This would signal a real change in America. The first Asian American president fires the racist chancellor who told a bad joke with an Asian American slur.

It’s almost too good to be true.

Just think. Would Keon still be at work if he said the N-word?

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. His talk show is on www.amok.com

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