Video Response to Alexandra Wallace, the UCLA Girl (Asians in the Library)

Esther Wu on Wednesday, March 16, 2011 4:00AM

So a few days ago, Alexandra Wallace, a UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles, for those of us who haven’t started the college process or are in the States) student, posted up a video of her ranting on youtube. The video is called “Asians in the Library” and is had racist comments against people of Asian descent. Why did she make this rant? Because of how they acted in the library.

Here is the video of a response to the rant, which I highly recommend watching because it’s hilarious:

Now, I definitely want to begin by telling you all (since a majority of you are either of Asian descent and/or have a culturally open-mind towards Asia in its entirety) that you should not take this girl offensively. There are many people in this world in every skin colour that are like her. Regardless, Asian peoples in general (Chinese, Taiwanese (let’s not get into this debate please), Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Indian, Bengali, Mongolian– everyone there) are a minority in the West. The bad thing is, is that Asians are usually concentrated in a few areas, easily becoming almost a “majority” of a certain area (think New York City or San Francisco). So what happens is that you do get a lot of awareness and culture-mingling in those areas, but almost nothing in the rest of the US. So do keep in mind that this girl never got exposed to Asian traditional culture (which I’d like to separate from Asian pop culture. You probably agree that there’s a bit of difference in how you look at South Korea through K-pop music versus their ancient mythology).

And you know what, that is too bad. It’s bad that she looks at “Asia” as only Chinese (notice she’s insulting Chinese people, but talk about the tsunami, which clearly hit Japan). It’s bad that she doesn’t have any more sense then that (like I’m sorry, but it is bad. Even I forget that an Indian person is an Asian person some times. I’m correcting that, because it’s not fair to the peoples who clearly have a defining ethnicity and culture in a wonderful continent.) It’s bad that she also has this old 1890s version of Asian (Chinese in this case) people.

By that I mean if you remember, roughly in that era and into the early half of the 1900s, Asian people were mainly Chinese people, who tried to escape China because of failing Qing, rise of Sun Yatsen, and subsequently, the coming of the Guomindang. So obviously, there were a lot of Chinese people who were centered in ghettos. Because how else did you feel safe in a foreign country? You stuck with your fellow people who shared the same language. (This is also the case for the Irish, Africans, Jews, and even the Germans). So a lot of stereotypes rose around these ghettos– I mean c’mon. Anyone here has been to a densely populated Asian neighborhood of 1st or 2nd generation immigrants? You understand what these “stereotypes” are.

In addition, do also keep in mind that the only reason that there weren’t and haven’t been a lot of Japanese people is not only did Japan experience a beautiful bloom known as the Meiji Period, and who would want to move out of a blooming country, but also by the 1940s, the Japanese people in America were sent to relocation camps because of WWII. (This was not repealed until the 80s under Reagan).

In essence, why I’m giving the world history lay down is that I want to point out that she has a pretty old way of looking at “Asian” people by stereotyping them as Chinese. But I also want to point out that there’s a reason why she has that outlook. I really wish she can change her outlook, but that’s not going to be just done by her, but also by us (as Asians, but also the future. Insert cheese). We’re not immigrants, and I’m certain we’re not like those Asian stereotypes.

Anyways, my opinion on her is just that. I can’t defend her, but I see where she’s coming from. I also see her as a highly typical American– blond, ignorant, and basically– stupid. How she got into ULCA is beyond me. American education is a sham, so she probably got 2200+ on her SATs and graduated from a joke of a high school that gave her a 4.0 gpa. She also probably has extracurriculars, just to make her look intelligent.

Her ignorance makes me very hard for me to say anything nice about her, but I don’t hate her for it. I completely understand why she’s complaining. I may be Chinese and live next to a Chinese ghetto, but I grew up with them along with Americans. Those Chinese stereotypes are really the worst images of both Asian and Chinese people.

Honestly, this video is just a reminder of stereotypes of both American (the way she talks) and Chinese (and Asian in general) through her dialogue. I’m all hopeful for globalization, so all I have to say is maybe, a century down the line, these type of videos don’t have to exist anymore.

Here is the original video (that someone else has uploaded):