Crazy knows no color

Max Karson, photo by Daily Camera's Joshua LawtonSo if you thought minorities were the only people making outrageous comments about people of other races, you would be wrong, and here’s proof.

This harmless-looking student is named Max Karson, and he recently wrote an op-ed column titled “If it’s war the Asians want…” The article, initially defended by the editors of University of Colorado’s Campus Press, uses Kenneth Eng precision in picking on the individual behavior of Asian students at his campus and concludes Asians hate whites, so must whites hate Asians:

I’m such a fool for not realizing it sooner. I can’t tell you how many times the Asians have treated me like a retarded weasel and I’ve forgiven them. But now I know that Asians are not just “a product of their environment,” and their rudeness is not a “cultural misunderstanding.”They hate us all.

And I say it’s time we started hating them back. That’s right-no more “tolerance.” No more “cultural sensitivity.” No more “Mr. Pretend-I’m-Not-Racist.”

It’s time for war.

The article immediately upset readers and the editors published a mea culpa yesterday:

Max Karson’s Monday opinion, “If it’s war the Asians want‚Ķ,” has clearly upset a large segment of our readership, and for that, we owe it to those who were offended by the article to maintain the highest level of journalistic integrity and sincerely apologize to anyone who was hurt by this article.

Karson’s opinion is satire and is a commentary on racism at CU published in our opinion section, not presented as fact or incitement, and not published to intentionally incite controversy. We apologize for any ambiguity of the satire that may have been misconstrued.

But not only all that, the university’s chancellor issued his own apology:

The column was a poor attempt at social satire laden with offensive references, stereotypes and hateful language.

It was not properly labeled as either satire or commentary, and readers were left with the impression that the author spoke for the collective staff and leadership of the Campus Press, and perhaps even the University of Colorado.

He spoke for none of the aforementioned, and while his column is unquestionably protected under the First Amendment, the sentiments he has expressed are wounding and damaging to a community we hold dear and come at a time when we are trying to celebrate diversity at CU-Boulder with our annual Diversity Summit.

I want to personally apologize to the individuals who may have been wounded or offended by the column and the perspectives that it purports to represent.

To be fair, poor Max Karson, doesn’t seem to actually believe the things he wrote — evidenced by nothing else but the fact that he’s not appearing on Fox News to promote his Asian white supremacist views and dragon books. But still. It certainly was crazy of him to think that writing such things, without clearly labeling it as satire, wasn’t going to get people going, in the wake of hanging noose sightings and, yes, Kenneth Eng.

One thought on “Crazy knows no color

  1. rensational

    Of course he believes what he wrote, as does the rest of the staff that decided nothing was wrong with printing that opinion. What else do white people say when people get upset? There’s a reason why that piece wasn’t labeled satire–it wasn’t, not totally.

    And why would anyone think minorities are the only ones disparaging other races? As this incident shows, the insults and racism usually come from whites. I’m going to have to disagree with you–“crazy” often comes in the form of color and sex, i.e. the white male.

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