Yale Dean placed on leave for racist and offensive comments on Yelp

[thebeave]

https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9203

Yale University has placed one of its deans on leave for the rest of the academic year after discovering a series of racist and offensive comments on her Yelp account.

June Chu was appointed Dean of Pierson College in May of 2016, and an investigation by The Yale Daily News reveals that throughout her tenure she has periodically left reviews of local establishments in which she makes disparaging comments about white people and the poor.

“These reviews make it clear how Dean Chu thinks about people who are different from her.”

On one occasion, according to screenshots of her reviews, Chu referred to fellow patrons at a local restaurant as “white trash” and “low class folks,” while in another instance she perplexingly praised a movie theater for its lack of “sketchy crowds,” despite its location in a relatively affluent area.

Dean Chu was placed on leave for what she did. Should she have been fired? Did she get a more lenient punishment than, say, a white male dean would for making similar disparaging remarks about poor black people?

 

[Nice Squirrel]

After reading the tweets (from Yale News not the conservative activist Campus Reform), no she should not be fired, placed on leave, yes. Except for the New Haven comment. Nobody should badmouth New Haven!

The only "racist" thing she mentioned was "white trash" otherwise she needs to consider her position within the community. I am sure the administration is going to be keeping an eye on her.

 

[barbos]

Asians are supposed to be smarter than that. Crap, I am being racist here.

 

[thebeave]

After reading the tweets (from Yale News not the conservative activist Campus Reform), no she should not be fired, placed on leave, yes. Except for the New Haven comment. Nobody should badmouth New Haven!

The only "racist" thing she mentioned was "white trash" otherwise she needs to consider her position within the community. I am sure the administration is going to be keeping an eye on her.

Why did you put the word "racist" in quotes?

 

[Derec]

Did she get a more lenient punishment than, say, a white male dean would for making similar disparaging remarks about poor black people?

Probably. And of course, black professors who make racist remarks (like Saida Grundy or Tommy Curry) receive no punishment at all. In fact they are being celebrated by fellow black racists and the white useful idiots.

 

[barbos]

http://ydn.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Chu_reviews.pdf
Not so much racist. More like someone who is full of herself. Maybe she has inferiority complex because Sociology is a bottom of the barrel of sciences (that is if we agree to call it a science).

 

[repoman]

Maybe these people were what most white people would also call white trash.

hmm, well behaved and middle class whites call lower class messed up lives white people white trash all the time. Granted that being poor in an age of payday loans can make stress levels so high that a moderately fucked up white person can be pushed to being a complete shitfuck. Being in debt without the outlets to Russian mafia like Trump is stressful!

Well behaved middle class blacks also use the term "ghetto" at times.

Capitalism makes people expendable and it is no wonder that "last place aversion" is a mental survival technique that is used all the time.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

After reading the tweets (from Yale News not the conservative activist Campus Reform), no she should not be fired, placed on leave, yes. Except for the New Haven comment. Nobody should badmouth New Haven!

The only "racist" thing she mentioned was "white trash" otherwise she needs to consider her position within the community. I am sure the administration is going to be keeping an eye on her.

Why did you put the word "racist" in quotes?

Because I felt like it.

 

[Bomb#20]

hmm, well behaved and middle class whites call lower class messed up lives white people white trash all the time.

So? That doesn't make it okay for an Asian to do it. Don't you know the rules yet?

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVN_0qvuhhw[/youtube]

 

[thebeave]

Why did you put the word "racist" in quotes?

Because I felt like it.

Uh huh...sure. I think its pretty clear that you don't think its racist to call people "white trash". Correct?

And by the way, there were other racist comments in her Yelp reviews. She objected to the idea of Chinese people working in a Japanese restaurant. How you can not see that as blatantly advocating for race discrimination in hiring is beyond me.

 

[TV and credit cards]

She got caught being herself. She doesn't deserve to be fired any more than you or I. Who here is without sin? I know I've had impure thoughts walking through Walmart. We're all just one bad day away from letting a regretful comment slip.

 

[TSwizzle]

She got caught being herself. She doesn't deserve to be fired any more than you or I. Who here is without sin? I know I've had impure thoughts walking through Walmart. We're all just one bad day away from letting a regretful comment slip.

Indeed, you have the Stasi watching your every move these day as this girl found out. What a wonderful world we live in.

 

[LordKiran]

She got caught being herself. She doesn't deserve to be fired any more than you or I. Who here is without sin? I know I've had impure thoughts walking through Walmart. We're all just one bad day away from letting a regretful comment slip.

I'd agree if people who do slip up made the voluntary effort to recant their statements and explain why they regret their words.

 

[untermensche]

She got caught being herself. She doesn't deserve to be fired any more than you or I. Who here is without sin? I know I've had impure thoughts walking through Walmart. We're all just one bad day away from letting a regretful comment slip.

She is supposed to understand that it is only circumstance that separates her from "white trash".

If she's working at Yale she was probably a brilliant student.

Being brilliant is just pure luck. Nobody did anything extra to be that way.

She is just the product of her circumstances like everybody else.

But in her position she is supposed to understand that.

 

[braces_for_impact]

She got caught being herself. She doesn't deserve to be fired any more than you or I. Who here is without sin? I know I've had impure thoughts walking through Walmart. We're all just one bad day away from letting a regretful comment slip.

She is supposed to understand that it is only circumstance that separates her from "white trash".

If she's working at Yale she was probably a brilliant student.

Being brilliant is just pure luck. Nobody did anything extra to be that way.

She is just the product of her circumstances like everybody else.

But in her position she is supposed to understand that.

If she's at Yale making rough comments like that on Yelp, she doesn't strike me as all that brilliant. I've got a GED, and I don't leave comments like that on Yelp. Of course, I realize that someone's race or socioeconomic background has little to do with the service I receive. Now, I might be inclined to describe a place as "sketchy" perhaps, and I have in the past.

Seems to me she got "caught" expressing racist and class prejudice types of ideas. I say caught because the idea of leaving reviews is for others to read them. So, I imagine myself walking along with her as she says these things to me, instead of leaving them on Yelp. I find she's not someone I would want to hang out with or have lunch with or associate with as a friend. I see how many others might feel this way too, especially if they're one of the types of people she complains about. I'm not white trash, but perhaps someone else would think I am. Would she think I am?

This is pretty light as things go, and I think just reflects negatively on her as a person in general. Her job is to deal with the public as a Dean, but I seriously doubt she runs into much "white trash" at Yale. I could conceivably see a student having to deal with her and now wondering if she views them as one of the classes of people she seems to despise in her Yelp reviews, and then wondering if maybe they're getting fair treatment.

I think it's for Yale to decide whether she should experience some sort of consequences for her actions, and undoubtedly she will experience some social consequences for her actions, and I have no problem with that, unless the reaction is out of proportion to the offense.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

Because I felt like it.

Uh huh...sure. I think its pretty clear that you don't think its racist to call people "white trash". Correct?

I call people and myself "white trash". I also use the slurs, 'yuppie scum" and "dude-bro". Some people may think it is racist, but usually when people bring it up they are trying to point the finger at someone else in a weak display of outrage. Yes, you can make a case for it to be racist, but since that's a label I use on myself, I am neutral.

 

[J842P]

She got caught being herself. She doesn't deserve to be fired any more than you or I. Who here is without sin? I know I've had impure thoughts walking through Walmart. We're all just one bad day away from letting a regretful comment slip.

A Dean is no mere employee. If you are that high up in an organization, your personal conduct and reputation are going to be scrutinized. Oftentimes, colleges have a shaky relationship with the non-college residents around them. The relationship between Yale and New Haven, I've been led to believe, is particularly contentious. Denigrating the locals certainly falls under behavior that is appropriate to censure. And this wasn't some private conversation caught on hidden camera, it was a review left on a public forum non-anonymously. At the very least that lack of judgement should give your employers a pause. I wouldn't expect my employers to have to have my back if I make a fool of myself publicly in a way that harms their mission.

 

[thebeave]

Uh huh...sure. I think its pretty clear that you don't think its racist to call people "white trash". Correct?

I call people and myself "white trash". I also use the slurs, 'yuppie scum" and "dude-bro". Some people may think it is racist, but usually when people bring it up they are trying to point the finger at someone else in a weak display of outrage. Yes, you can make a case for it to be racist, but since that's a label I use on myself, I am neutral.

Yes, I'm from a lower middle class, rural white background myself, and I frequently make jokes with friends and family about that. I grew up surrounded by so-called "white trash". We talk like hillbillies sometimes and laugh about the funny white redneck pictures on the internet (like when they build a fire in a toilet bowl, put a grill on it and cook hotdogs), etc. I think the context matters though. As an example, consider that blacks call each other "nigga" or "nigger"...frequently. Its not that big a thing when they say it among themselves in private discussions, but its a different story if, say, an elitist, Yale-educated white person leaves a comment on yelp that says in all seriousness, "this is the kind of sketchy dive joint that would appeal to a bunch of niggers". June Chu used it in the latter context, which makes it a racist statement.

 

[TV and credit cards]

To be fair, a slip up on a bad day is much different than an internet post or in this case posts where we have ample opportunity to (and should) police ourselves. Still, to end a person's career is quite a punishment. I think in this lofty position, the loss of respect she will suffer is punishment enough. Things like this, people don't forget. She'll have to wear it for a good long time.

 

[J842P]

To be fair, a slip up on a bad day is much different than an internet post or in this case posts where we have ample opportunity to (and should) police ourselves. Still, to end a person's career is quite a punishment. I think in this lofty position, the loss of respect she will suffer is punishment enough. Things like this, people don't forget. She'll have to wear it for a good long time.

I doubt her entire career as an academic will be ruined. However, it shouldn't be surprising if it turns out to stunt her opportunities for career growth as an admin. And there's no reason why it shouldn't. One can't expect high-power positions to be without high expectations on the conduct of that person.

Anyway, being *merely* a Yale professor is hardly sentencing someone to the poor house.