Column: "Kenneth Eng is Not Smart"
Wednesday, 07 March 2007
758 words
Aha. That explains everything. Thanks, Kenneth.
758 words
It was one of those conversations you stumble across by happenstance but cannot turn away from; like a bad accident in the lane opposite yours, where you crane your neck to see what’s happening. Sorry to say I missed most of John Gibson’s interview with (now former) Asian Week columnist Kenneth Eng conducted Monday afternoon, but managed in my brief exposure to get the upshot: Eng hates blacks and whites, but especially blacks, has no problem saying so and in fact did, in a column titled “Why I Hate Blacks” first posted at AsianWeek.com on Friday, 23 February.
“Here is a list of reasons why we should discriminate against blacks,” Eng begins, “starting from the most obvious down to the least obvious. [Point one:] Blacks hate us [Asians]. Every Asian who has ever come across them knows that they take almost every opportunity to hurl racist remarks at us. In my experience, I would say about 90 percent of blacks I have met, regardless of age or environment, poke fun at the very sight of an Asian. Furthermore, their activity in the media proves their hatred: Rush Hour, Exit Wounds, Hot 97, etc.” (For those unaware, I’ll save you the trouble of having to find out that Hot 97 is one in a long string of awful “urban” radio stations, headquartered in New York City.)
“Their activity in the media” offhandedly suggests blacks generally have their way in the media, which will come as some surprise to the Jews who actually control the media. Just kidding. But by reading and understanding my joke, you get some idea of my initial reaction to Eng’s column: I went looking for the punchline. Surely Eng is attempting to make a point through offbeat social satire … I scanned the piece again, looking for a hint of sarcasm, or irony, or wit; then again, and again. Instead what I found was:
“Contrary to media depictions, I would argue that blacks are weak-willed. They are the only race that has been enslaved for 300 years. It’s unbelievable that it took them that long to fight back. On the other hand, we slaughtered the Russians in the Japanese-Russo war.”
A tremendous amount of weight rests in that phrase – “on the other hand.” Eng is hoping the reader will take for granted a corollary between war and slavery and not give it a second thought. Conducted between February 1904 and September 1905, the Russo-Japanese war (as it’s more commonly called) carries over slavery the unique distinction of actually being a war fought between nations, whereas slavery was a human trafficking business. Parsed correctly, no part of the thought makes even the slightest bit of sense.
Anyway, I’ll admit to being at somewhat of a loss to explain what Eng means. He is either ignorant of, or indifferent to, the long record of slave uprisings throughout American history (to say nothing of what may have occurred before the States became united), but in either case should be made aware of the violence put forth to quell said uprisings. Not knowing of Nat Turner’s Rebellion (the largest slave revolt in our history, 1831) should in no way preclude any columnist from typing “slave uprising” into a search engine and getting himself a working knowledge of the subject as a whole. Not that knowing would change his mind, but it may have kept him from writing, “It’s unbelievable that it took them that long to fight back.”
“Why I Hate Blacks” goes on as above, but becomes no more coherent. Modern Americans are tempted from the first to deconstruct Eng’s prejudice as a means of understanding him. This is one of our most irritating traits as a culture; understanding why someone is a racist isn’t nearly as important as simply knowing he is, but for some reason it will make us feel better to know what drives him, as though our knowing will somehow clear his mind of plain idiocies.
A transcript of Eng’s interview with John Gibson is posted at FoxNews.com, for both posterity’s and hilarity’s sake. Question (paraphrased): So, you’ve written that you hate blacks, whites, and Asians. Do you really hate all those people? Eng: “Well, I generally hate black and white people, but the Asian article was sarcastic. It's kind of like the sarcasm I had in my novel, in which dragons slay tons and tons of humans. But this relates to — in the sense that dragons logically follow evolution so they would be able to wield metal.”
“Here is a list of reasons why we should discriminate against blacks,” Eng begins, “starting from the most obvious down to the least obvious. [Point one:] Blacks hate us [Asians]. Every Asian who has ever come across them knows that they take almost every opportunity to hurl racist remarks at us. In my experience, I would say about 90 percent of blacks I have met, regardless of age or environment, poke fun at the very sight of an Asian. Furthermore, their activity in the media proves their hatred: Rush Hour, Exit Wounds, Hot 97, etc.” (For those unaware, I’ll save you the trouble of having to find out that Hot 97 is one in a long string of awful “urban” radio stations, headquartered in New York City.)
“Their activity in the media” offhandedly suggests blacks generally have their way in the media, which will come as some surprise to the Jews who actually control the media. Just kidding. But by reading and understanding my joke, you get some idea of my initial reaction to Eng’s column: I went looking for the punchline. Surely Eng is attempting to make a point through offbeat social satire … I scanned the piece again, looking for a hint of sarcasm, or irony, or wit; then again, and again. Instead what I found was:
“Contrary to media depictions, I would argue that blacks are weak-willed. They are the only race that has been enslaved for 300 years. It’s unbelievable that it took them that long to fight back. On the other hand, we slaughtered the Russians in the Japanese-Russo war.”
A tremendous amount of weight rests in that phrase – “on the other hand.” Eng is hoping the reader will take for granted a corollary between war and slavery and not give it a second thought. Conducted between February 1904 and September 1905, the Russo-Japanese war (as it’s more commonly called) carries over slavery the unique distinction of actually being a war fought between nations, whereas slavery was a human trafficking business. Parsed correctly, no part of the thought makes even the slightest bit of sense.
Anyway, I’ll admit to being at somewhat of a loss to explain what Eng means. He is either ignorant of, or indifferent to, the long record of slave uprisings throughout American history (to say nothing of what may have occurred before the States became united), but in either case should be made aware of the violence put forth to quell said uprisings. Not knowing of Nat Turner’s Rebellion (the largest slave revolt in our history, 1831) should in no way preclude any columnist from typing “slave uprising” into a search engine and getting himself a working knowledge of the subject as a whole. Not that knowing would change his mind, but it may have kept him from writing, “It’s unbelievable that it took them that long to fight back.”
“Why I Hate Blacks” goes on as above, but becomes no more coherent. Modern Americans are tempted from the first to deconstruct Eng’s prejudice as a means of understanding him. This is one of our most irritating traits as a culture; understanding why someone is a racist isn’t nearly as important as simply knowing he is, but for some reason it will make us feel better to know what drives him, as though our knowing will somehow clear his mind of plain idiocies.
A transcript of Eng’s interview with John Gibson is posted at FoxNews.com, for both posterity’s and hilarity’s sake. Question (paraphrased): So, you’ve written that you hate blacks, whites, and Asians. Do you really hate all those people? Eng: “Well, I generally hate black and white people, but the Asian article was sarcastic. It's kind of like the sarcasm I had in my novel, in which dragons slay tons and tons of humans. But this relates to — in the sense that dragons logically follow evolution so they would be able to wield metal.”
Aha. That explains everything. Thanks, Kenneth.
posted by Brian S. Wise | 8:08 AM
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