UBC apologizes after document on 'yellow privilege' sent to students
'We sincerely apologize for this communication and its impact, in particular to members of our Asian communities,' a UBC official said in a follow-up emailAuthor of the article:
Tyler Dawson
Publishing date:
Dec 07, 2020 • Last Updated 1 day ago • 3 minute read
A document entitled “yellow privilege,” which claims East Asians benefit from advantages that other people of colour do not, has caused a furor at the University of British Columbia after an unidentified resident adviser sent it to students.
“This is so victim blaming,” says a post by an anonymous account that uploaded the document to reddit. “I can understand why he wants to raise awareness towards asians being racist to black people. But sending this out during a pandemic, when Asians are getting attacked for this virus, and Asian businesses are vandalized and closed down? Let the community have a chance to recover first.”
The document, which was sent by an unidentified residence adviser, says East Asians in particular receive advantages from being both the oppressor and the oppressed. Citing academic research, the document says this is linked to the idea of a “model minority.” Asians in Canada are considered “‘hard-working’ or ‘smart’ and are ‘successful’ from our ‘innate talents.’ It’s shaped how we view ourselves as the Asian community and of other minorities.”
This, it argues, leads to oppression because East Asians distance themselves from working class and poor Southeast Asians. But East Asians are also oppressed because they are subordinate to white people and are “quiet,” being not especially politically active, in order to maintain their status as a model minority.
The six-page document implores recipients to consider which privileges they’re aware they have and which they’re unaware they have, and asks recipients to consider how they may “elevate those who are harmed by this form of privilege.” It also lists several resources students can use to explore these concepts further.
“This (document) is completely unacceptable to see. I’m a little horrified to see this, both as a former RA and in my current role. Glad to see actions are being taken to report this incident,” says one post on reddit, from Georgia Yee, the vice-president academic and university affairs for the UBC Alma Mater Society.
While it’s not known exactly how many residents were sent a copy of the document, a follow-up email from Sean Ryan, the associate director of student housing, was sent to 66 students.
“We sincerely apologize for this communication and its impact, in particular to members of our Asian communities,” Ryan’s email said. “We recognize the email and its content have even greater implications in the midst of a pandemic that has spurred a climate of increased negativity towards Asian communities.”
The email described the “hurtful impact” of the document as “greatly regrettable.” Ryan wrote that the residence adviser did “follow an approval process before sending their email,” and that the fact it was approved “raises important questions for us about how we review RA initiatives generally.”
A spokesperson for UBC said Ryan’s email constituted the school’s comment on the matter and did not respond to the Post’s follow-up query about how the “yellow privilege” email would have been approved and who was responsible for approving it.
The reddit discussion features a robust argument about the letter.
“With this twisted logic you can basically turn any oppressed group in ‘oppressors.’ How exactly is that supposed to help solve the systemic problems at hand???” says one post.
Another calls on the “silent majority” to “take a stand.”
“I want to start a bipartisan student organization that stands for free expression and civil discourse without being a right wing dog whistle like the Free Speech Club. If we don’t stand up now, we’ll only live in more fear going forward,” the post says.
Of particular concern among students was the fact the document appears to downplay anti-Asian racism during the COVID-19 pandemic. There has been an alarming uptick in hate crimes and Human Rights Watch has called on governments around the world to come up with national strategies to address it.
According to statistics from the Vancouver Police Department, hate crimes against Asians rose 878 per cent. In real numbers, this means in the first nine months of 2020, there were 88 anti-Asian crimes, such as verbal abuse and graffiti, compared to just nine incidents in the same period in 2019.
When IdPol/Critical Race Theory go WRONG.
