To the editor:
I'm normally too busy, and too apathetic, to bother writing comments about some outrageous Wildcat column, even about that ultra-conservative moron we have to endure during the school year.
However, Faye Fujimoto's bigoted tirade on how Amerasians "have ... suffered enough grief at the hands of the United States," (July 6) is just too much. Actually, it really pissed me off.
She chides this nation, the world's ethnic melting pot, as hypocritical because we differentiate between ethnicities, yet she proudly exclaims as her first sentence, "I am an Asian American." Yes, Ms. Fujimoto, like you say in your column, "hypocrisy at its worst." And contrary to your grandstanding, the hyphen is immaterial.
Might I also add here that Oriental is a Latin-derived word referring to the East: are you also offended by the term "Far East?" Ideally, you should be proud of your familial heritage, but you should also be inquisitive and respectful of people who are different than you are. It would seem from your commentary that you harbor deep-seated resentments.
The most truly amazing, almost hilarious, part of the column was the myopic analysis of Kristi Yamaguchi's Olympic career. Despite your assessment that her dream was "...washed down the drain because of her ethnicity," I suspect she did not spend years training for the Olympics for the ultimate goal of lucrative commercial endorsements.
Maybe I'm being naive, but I'll assume Kristi Yamaguchi's dream was realized when she attended the Olympics, and even more so when she took a medal. I find it disturbingly curious that your comments seem to cast those of Japanese ancestry as being singly motivated by economic profit. So much for dispelling stereotypes. Hypocrisy, Ms. Fujimoto, would seem to be your fort‚.
Overall, such irresponsible and insulting ranting and raving constitutes little more than garbage. It was also surprisingly anti-American for someone with the audacity to include "American" in her ethnicity label. I suspect that had you published a white male's equivalent of that commentary, both he and the newspaper would be crucified.
So, Mr. Hartmann, in fairness to everyone, keep this "we're all victims" trash out of the newspaper, and keep your "reporters" on a tighter leash (i.e do your job and EDIT!) After all, that commentary does not qualify as journalism.
Frank Mazdab
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