Princetonian ‘Joke’ Issue Shows Knack for Subtle Social Commentary
We knew there was a reason we hadn't yet written about Jian Li, the high school senior who sued filed a civil rights complaint against Princeton for discrimination after they rejected his early application. (He claims they held his Asian ethnicity against him.) And boy are we glad we waited, since now he can probably add the Daily Princetonian as a defendant.
In yesterday's annual "joke" issue, the Prince ran, among other laugh-laugh-sigh satires, an op-ed by one "Lian Ji" titled, "Princeton University is racist against me, I mean, non-whites." "Hi Princeton! Remember me?" it starts off. "I so good at math and science. Perfect 2400 SAT score. Ring bell?" Having upturned that modest divet, they keep digging for another 550 or so words:
"What is wrong with you no color people? Yellow people make the world go round. We cook greasy food, wash your clothes and let you copy our homework. Brown people are catching up, too but not before the 2008 Beijing Olympics."
WOW. I mean, wow. After the year that brought us the Dartmouth Review Native American flap and Yale Rumpus' "Me Love You Long Time" ado, it's as if someone just pushed reset. Let's see that again! There should really be an award for the student(s) who, every year, think they will be the ones to transcend racism by displaying it in its crudest form. And who, every year, make utter fools of themselves (and learn that irony isn't a defense). So kind of them not to spell it "Orympics."
If this doesn't blow up in their faces, it's by the grace of God. Princetonian Editor-in-Chief Chanakya Sethi '07 told us he was "aware there were concerns" about the piece, but hasn't heard any direct complaints yet. Then again, students are in reading week. "If there are people who are concerned, I'm concerned," he said.
The best part is, the people responsible for running it -- the outgoing board, Sethi included -- won't even have to deal with the (still hypothetical) fallout. The hate mail, the meetings with deans, the sensitivity training seminars -- all will fall squarely on the shoulders of their successors. Thanks, fellas. It's been fun. Don't let the picketers hit you in the ass on the way out.
P.S. -- The Globe's must-read Brainiac had this first.
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January 18th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
the Daily Princetonian is a wasteland
January 18th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
unfortunately i know lots of prince people, chan is a decent guy but wow. what the hell were they thinking…
January 18th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
There’s a Princeton facebook group protesting this article:
http://princeton.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2229879507&ref=nf
So yes, it’s reading period, but students are starting to catch wind of this.
January 18th, 2007 at 6:46 pm
This was just stupid on part of the Prince. The board’s composed of some fairly competent people, so I’m surprised this one slipped and came this far.
January 18th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
The Prince wouldn’t know funny if it bit them in the arse, which it apparently has.
It gets worse — apparently they also attempted to play a joke by putting pee pee in someone’s Coke.
Thankfully, he was far too smart and did not drink the pee pee part.
January 18th, 2007 at 7:53 pm
this hypersensitivity is starting to get old. as a person of asian descent, i officially take no offense. this is a funny article. the kid is a toolbox. asians are wonderful and nice people who have a stereotype about them much like every other ethnic group in the entire world. Jews? Big noses. Arabs? Crazy suicide bombers. Indians? They all talk funny. Southerners? stupid. come on, people.
January 18th, 2007 at 10:12 pm
I guess asians really showed the daily prince. I mean, a facebook group? that’s not ironic
January 18th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
y08, how can you say those things????????????????
BEING OFFENDED IS MY WHOLE LIFE, YYYYYEEAAAAAAARRRGGHHH!!!
If you think or say naughty things, I will track you down.
January 19th, 2007 at 1:03 am
So I see you guys at IvyGate have nothing better to do than to run around crying racist every time you see a piece of satire. Irony is absolutely a defense. Shake that chip off your shoulder and grow a sense of humor.
January 19th, 2007 at 3:55 am
This supposed racism and insensitivity is nothing short of ludicrous. Everyone who is up in arms about this satire piece is missing the point of that entire issue of the Prince. It is a joke issue, which is why it comes with the disclaimer “Don’t believe anything you read in this issue.” Other notable articles in this issue included one accusing tenured politics professor and noted conservative thinker Robert George of buying meth from a male prostitute. Is Prof. George accusing the Prince of slander? No, because it is satire and everyone (apparently except hypersensitive Asians) knows it!
Why is it that every other minority group on campus (and yes I use the word minority outside of its racial context) can be made fun of in this issue of the Prince, but when an Asian stereotype is the butt of a joke, its suddenly racism and insensitivity? This self-righteous uproar is completely unfounded.
To those who are offended, I say grow up and grow some thicker skin.
January 19th, 2007 at 5:07 am
the Prince really is a piece of shit. it’s mostly illiterate, never funny, and never gets to the bottom of the news. good to see them in some hot water.
January 19th, 2007 at 5:22 am
This piece takes priggishness to a whole new level. Maybe you should boycott Borat, too. And start ordering Chinese take-out every night, just to show them you are a TOTALLY open-minded person and would NEVER assume that Chinese students have pushy mothers. Never. It would almost be like saying Jews are good with money.
January 19th, 2007 at 10:11 am
http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2007/01/19/news/17134.shtml
The Prince wrote a news story about the column today…I guess some of the people who wrote it were Asian, although I don’t know if it matters.
January 19th, 2007 at 10:13 am
Looks like Prince stepped in the old macaca … amazing how people hide behind satire to express their deep-seated hatreds and fears. Adults pay for this insensitivity with their jobs and careers (ask George Allen in Virginia what his career looks like after his racist jibe). What price will Prince and Princeton pay?
January 19th, 2007 at 10:16 am
It’s not racist, and it’s certainly not funny: it’s STOOPID. Not racist, very funny and smart is Sarah Silverman’s joke about trying to get out of jury duty by telling the judge, “I hate chinks.” (If you haven’t heard the whole bit, don’t judge.)
Oh, and I’m a big-nosed Princeton alum who is good with money.
January 19th, 2007 at 11:01 am
learn. the. definition. of. irony. before. you. use. it.
This piece isn’t even close to ironic. It’s basically a hyperbolic regurgitation of racial stereotypes that probably had the intention of being satirical, but because it was so poorly done, just came off as offensive. Just because you agree with some of the stereotypes doesn’t actually make it funny, even though you don’t think it’s offensive.
The idea behind Borat was to expose other people’s racist views with an absurd ACTOR. This piece is literally making fun of a (albeit obnoxious) college freshman.
But even more than that. Irony. Look it up. This isn’t it.
January 19th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
I am furious about this and I will not hesitate to involve my attorney at ron706@aol.com.
January 19th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
It’s a poorly writtten piece of junk that should not have made the final edition. The thing that concerns me is that the Prince editors thought that this would actually be tastefully humerous. However, it was neither. If it were funnier, then yes, we could laugh it off and it would be taken as a joke. But that’s simply the problem. Who actually laughed out loud or even chuckled at any of it? Would it have been appropriate to write an article full of poor grammar and “ain’t”’s and “yo”’s and “n-” just to satirize the black community, especially if it wasn’t funny? NO. There’d be an uproar. If anything it speaks of poor taste of the editorial staff. They obviously have no sense of humor and probably sit around and pat each other on the back thinking that they’re pretty cool and funny. Past joke issues have been tastefully funny. This entire one, not really.
January 19th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
by using broken english as the butt of a joke, it assumes english as the standard and undermines the value of other languages. it’s the same reason why ‘oriental’ is a demeaning adjective [when describing asians, i am not a rug, thank you very much] and frankly broken english satires are tired as hell. and this one, especially, was poorly done.
January 19th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
Asian Americans are one of the few groups left in America that can be mocked and stereotyped with little fear of reprisal. Come on, if the Daily Princeton were to mock African Americans or Jews, there would be a storm of criticism and it would probably make the New York Times, CNN and it would be national news.
Mocking Asian Americans is safe. The New York Times would never report on it, the Princeton University administration will tolerate it and the editors will get off clean.
If the Daily Princeton staff really wanted to try something innovative and push the envelope, how about a story making fun of the Holocaust or making fun of slavery. Now, that would be brave!
Instead, the Daily Princeton staff took the easy and cowardly way out by going after Asian Americans.
January 19th, 2007 at 9:25 pm
Hey poster who calls him/herself “irony?”: The piece is absolutely ironic. Unless you want to allege that Chan Sethi and everyone else on the Prince’s managing board is racist, then clearly they are saying the opposite of what they mean, which, last time I checked, was the definition of irony. Quit playing word usage police and go study for your exams.
January 20th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Folks – I’m an Asian American Princeton alum. I don’t think you realize how fast and far this article has spread around to the world. Asian alumni are outraged by this article. For those who think it was a joke, you are probably also fans of Michael Richards and Mel Gibson.
There are massive protests in the works, both on campus and off…there are ethical limits to jokes and freedom of speech. Like the Michael Richards rant at the comedy club, this article clearly crossed the line.
January 20th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
It’s pretty awful. The Prince is not exactly the Tiger, the Nassau Weekly, Quipfire, Triangle or even the Band (other comedy groups on campus), and it showed. Their attempt at comedy was either lewd or stereotypical. In the age of the internet, this kind of sophomore crap will get sent around the world and make Princeton as a whole look stupid. Way to go, idiots.
January 20th, 2007 at 11:38 pm
Princeton is a toilet. That article just proves what a blueblood, ignorant, sick little host to egotistical jerks it is.
January 21st, 2007 at 3:49 am
i actually cant agree with this ivygate article more. this happens every couple of years in some form or another, and cant say anyone’s learned anything. not the asians who think they’re hilarious when they write up a whole bunch of stereotypes about their own people but not themselves, nor the people who like to be the representative of all Asian races, yet chiller than the rest, not the people who are glad an asian wrote it so they can laugh, not the people who launch into outraged tirades about racist hate. for the people who have seen the cycle, there are the people who think “this again? get over it…”, and the people who think “this again? stop doing it…”
regarding this particular reincarnation though…i’m not going to go and claim that i have the definition of satire or irony memorized in the back of my head. i do know that when i read the article (and i tried to read it before i read secondary commentary), i couldn’t figure out what it was trying to say, other than “i am funny, laugh at me”. the frist/schiavo article in the same edition poking at pro-life, i read: it was mocking their definition of someone being “alive” by having pro-lifers say that Terri Schiavo was still “alive”. i also read the robert george article: that was poking at conservative hypocrisy on homosexuality by having a renowned conservative hire a gay prostiture. I understand the position behind those articles the drive the humor, and though pro-lifers and conservatives might not find it as humorous, they undoubtedly know what opinion is being represented there.
try the jian li article. um… the article is… um… poking at him for being stereotypical asian? poking at asians for being a stereotypical asian? saying he’s suing princeton because he’s a stereotypical asian? i dunno, these are my best guesses. well, no, my best guess of what they’re getting at is that jian li is a stereotypical asian, thus he and his claims against the university are utterly…ewww. or maybe its “he who sued the university is a geeky asian”….yeah, i dunno, you people who find it satirical, ironic, witty and humorous, tell me what its about.
January 21st, 2007 at 4:11 am
Satire is not an excuse for racist drivel. If it were, then we should be awarding Michael Richards a congressional medal for his genius satire that sparked dialog about racial reconciliation.
January 21st, 2007 at 5:32 am
Princeton itself aint so bad, really. You have to understand just how terrible the Daily Princetonian really is — utterly, consistently, phenomenally, legendarily terrible. I don’t know what students at the other Ivies think of their daily newspapers, but trust me, no matter how lackluster they may be, the Prince makes them look like the fucking NYRB. Every article is a superficial gloss that inevitably gets the story wrong — if there’s even a “story” there in the first place. There’s usually not.
However, Rita, those stereotypes you’re flinging at Princeton — they have nothing to do with the staff of the Daily Princetonian. They’re not racist, they just suck at life.
January 21st, 2007 at 5:45 am
Asians are the new Indians.
January 21st, 2007 at 6:49 am
“So I see you guys at IvyGate have nothing better to do than to run around crying racist every time you see a piece of satire. Irony is absolutely a defense.”
Printing an article full of stupid stereotypes about Asians is not satire. Making fun of the PERSON who’s suing Princeton could pass for satire (although it would still be a mean-spirited thing to do, so I don’t want to sound as if I’m 100% condoning that either). Making fun of the idea that Asians are discriminated against and/or the idea that this person apparently concluded he was being discriminated against on race without knowing the real reason he was rejected – that could possibly be satire. However, making fun of the person’s entire RACE is not in any way a satire or an attempt to inspire serious debate about the case, as the Daily Prince is now claiming it should. There’s an important distinction there.
January 21st, 2007 at 11:14 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4mgcIZlEO8
chappelle’s show: absurdly exaggerated black stereotypes, by a black person
prince column: absurdly exaggerated asian stereotypes, by an asian person (not south asian; it WAS written by a chinese-american, as is slowly becoming known on the p-ton campus)
so does this make chappelle (and margaret cho and every other comedian) racist? should they all apologize to anyone who happens to read/hear them? is this whole uproar just a consequence of the initial anonymity of the author, and if so, what does that tell us?
January 21st, 2007 at 2:16 pm
Absolutely hysterical article. Couldn’t have been funnier or had a better point. Thank goodness it was written.
January 21st, 2007 at 5:28 pm
who wrote it? if it’s going to come out anyway, someone might as well tell us. this is an anonymous website, remember
January 21st, 2007 at 10:46 pm
The funny part was calling the author “Lian Ji” instead of “Jian Li.” Other than that, it qualified as “journalistic malpractice.”
January 22nd, 2007 at 2:03 am
“so does this make chappelle (and margaret cho and every other comedian) racist?”
Sure chappelle’s show is extreme exaggeration, but they’re certainly not helping the cause against racism. You have black youth still calling each other niggers and acting with gang mentality b/c they emulate these role models. Maybe Asians hold themselves to a higher standards in society.
January 22nd, 2007 at 11:58 am
actually, what sarah silverman said was “i love chinks”
January 22nd, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Remember that one of the reasons Chappelle stopped doing his show was because he believed it was no longer socially responsible to portray those stereotypes in the first place. To do so, he felt, was to perpetuate and reinforce them.
January 22nd, 2007 at 3:29 pm
The Prince never gets to the bottom of a story – ever. It’s illiterate drivel. I’d like to put the Prince’s terribleness into historical context.
Take this recent lede, for example: “If this weekend’s games had been one giant exam, the men’s basketball team (9-6 overall, 0-2 Ivy League) would be in some pretty hot water with its parents.” What does that mean?
Or from last year: “the last time the Princeton women’s swimming and diving team lost in Ivy League dual-meet competition, Bill Clinton was President, current senior captain was a freshman in high school, and college students managed to procrastinate without thefacebook.com.” These really are the Prince’s traditional hallmarks of the passage of time: who was President? How old was Stephanie Hsiao? And most importantly, did thefacebook.com exist?
When other publications on campus offend groups of students, the Prince almost always takes a sanctimonious holier-than-thou approach, even as it misreports the facts. Good to see them get their just desserts.
January 23rd, 2007 at 6:49 am
How the hell is this crap satire or irony?? Why would you satire a Yale man with perfect SAT verbal scores with broken English?? How is that satire? The only way you can attribute broken english to Li is by his race/ethnicity and that’s the definition of racism. Also, a South Asian (Chanakya Sethi) doesn’t get a free pass to make racist comments against East Asians just because they are both Asians. Asia is a big place. I’m East Asian and if I were to greet my Indian co-workers with South Asian stereotypes, I would surely be fired. Why should Chanakya be allowed to hide his racism behind being a fellow Asian when he’s attacking another race entirely.
January 24th, 2007 at 1:06 am
Stinky news spreads fast. Like the controversy surrounding that British show (Big Brother), this story is making its way around the globe as well. Click on the link here http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=wWE&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&tab=wn&ncl=1112786108
or click on Google News, and type ‘princeton newspaper controversy’
January 24th, 2007 at 11:25 am
I have no problem with this.
January 24th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
The thing is, if you’re going to joke about race, gender, religion, or any other type of sensitive issue, it HAS to be really, and nearly unimpeachably, funny. Failed satire will end up sounding just like its intended targets, so there is very little room for error. Personally, I found the part about the overachiever stereotypes funny, because obviously the dude is being a total tool, and perpetuating these stereotypes. What bothered me was the broken language used in the article. It simply was not necessary in any way, and overstepped the line between making fun of this Jian Li toolbox, and making fun of Asians in general. Unlike the other stereotypes in the piece it was one which clearly did not have any relation to Jian Li, so there was really no justification for it, especially since it is a stereotype that is more “applicable” to Asians than to Asian-Americans. It may have been appropriate if the Prince had been satirizing Kim Jong-Il (a la Team America; so ronery…) but it had no place in this piece.
February 20th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
The Princeton Tiger (campus humor magazine) has a response in its latest issue (see p.6):
http://tigermag.princeton.edu/issues/feb07/issue125-1.pdf
It’s not very funny until the end, at which point it becomes extremely funny. Unless you go to Penn.
February 20th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
the princeton tiger is legitimately awful — it is probably the single unfunniest “humor” magazine in existence. retarded middle-schoolers could put out something better.
June 23rd, 2007 at 3:57 am
i guess if there’s any irony there, it can be found
in the fact that an asian would be complaining about
racism. asians are the most racist group of people
in the world. when asians stop thinking they are
superior to all other races, call me. otherwise,
the next time i hear the phrase ‘asians are going to
rule’ (should happen any minute now, somewhere in
america), i’ll remember to not feel bad about anything
the princetonian writes about asians.