To address discrimination without devolving into the Jacobinesque routines of cancel culture. There is an emerging consensus that while social justice is important, a certain defenestrational commitment has gone too far during the past several years.
If the aforementioned commitment and consensus are sincere, then the folks at Purdue University might consider rounding out 2022 by adopting a script that focuses on acknowledging both error — even serious error — and redemption. Maybe they already have — but especially these days, one cannot know at this early point.
The chancellor of Purdue University Northwest, Thomas L. Keon, did seriously screw up a couple of weekends ago. At a commencement ceremony, the speaker before him mentioned that he sometimes uses a made-up language with his family. Keon, upon reaching the podium, picked up this theme, barking out a sentence in what sounded like an embarrassing attempt to imitate Mandarin Chinese. He then chuckled, “That’s sort of my Asian version of his.”
In other words, as a warm-up note, Keon pulled out a routine reminiscent of Mickey Rooney’s bucktoothed Japanese character that makes the film “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” all but unwatchable in spots today. The stunt reminds me, too, of an
episode of the antique Milton Berle show on television in 1949, in which Berle wore a silly outfit to be “Chinese,” singing in a goofy accent with Keye Luke, an accomplished Chinese actor of the era, having to stand beside him pretending to enjoy singing the song.
When video of this episode got around online, calls for Keon’s head were immediate and legion. Many saw the incident as a cut-and-dried matter of an older white man deserving immediate dismissal for not having gotten the memo about racism.
Keon quickly published an apology that included, “We are all human. I made a mistake, and I assure you I did not intend to be hurtful and my comments do not reflect my personal or our institutional values.” Purdue’s board of trustees accepted the apology.
But will this be the end of the story? Not if this narrative parallels what has happened so often in similar cases lately. Sherrilyn Ifill, a former head of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, has deemed the apology “utterly insufficient.” Would a different apology suffice, or is the idea that Keon committed an unpardonable sin? Purdue Northwest’s Faculty Senate and American Association of University Professors chapter are seeking Keon’s resignation. Calls on social media for him to step down have been legion even after the apology.
Now, Keon obviously should know that his intent was not the whole of the matter; these days we consider that even when intended innocently (though perhaps foolishly), a comment can feel injurious to the addressee or onlooker. An Asian person might easily be hurt, offended, by a white guy — especially one in a position of power at a formal event — quacking out a sentence in mock Chinese with a grin.
