Hot 97 Tsunami Song Style Racism at Stony Bro

by Emily Tu

27% of entering freshmen this year were of Asian descent. Though we do not have stats to prove this, we believe, just as we are on the AA E-Zine, that most are immigrants or the children of immigrants. 39% of entering freshmen were from the city. 75% of all SBU students get financial aid. So the fact that a lot of the students in the Handball Club are Asian/American and the majority of the first signers of the Petition to Rebuild the Handball Courts are Asian/American should come as no surprise. 

Even given everything that has gone on in the past month with the racist lyrics of the Tsunami song (see link at bottom for related article), what did come as a surprise was how quickly the first racist comment was made on the petition: 

182. asians lick serious dick
next you can sign a petition for serving rats in sac... n optional footbinding at the gym for all your lil yellow kids

We asked Steven (Chi Wai) Poon, President of the Handball Club, how he felt when he read it. "I was really offended by that," he said. "It hurts me the most because I am not doing this for myself. I am doing all this stuff and having an unbalanced life all because I want to better serve the community."

"I see it as a big stain on the petition," he added. "It is totally not necessary and especially at this higher level of education, you think people can actually learn to grow up?"

"You can't control what people say or what they believe in. There are many more racist people out there, I do not have the time or energy to change them or care for them. All I can say," said Poon, "is that I am fortunate to have what I have. I feel sorry for racist people because of their ignorance and stupidity. They can never become good leaders and usually they will work for others for the rest of their life, hating life!"

"Therefore, I would not let this effect me in anyway, except to let me know that I'm doing a good job in advertisement [getting the word out about the petition]." 

Others were not as forgiving as Steven. One SBU AA E-Zine Editor said, "The ignorance of some people astounds me. It amazes me that such prejudices and stereotypes can exist in such a diverse school. It's sad, and ironic, that in an age when we are considered to be the most advanced, something like this comment happens to make it feel like we've been set back a hundred years."

The Zine congratulates Steve for doing more than just a good job but caring about the needs of future students, especially since he won't even be here to see new handball courts unless a miracle happens. How about as Dr. Preston's retirement gift to the campus he fast tracks the process so Steve gets to play before graduation? 

Rebuild the Handball Courts Petition
http://www.petitiononline.com/Handball/petition.html

Article on the Tsunami Song protest by Nusrat Alam
http://www.findit

Freshmen Ethnicity
http://ws.cc.stonybrook.edu/offires/Student%20Characteristics/
Graphs04/ethnicfresh04g.shtml

Freshmen Geography
http://ws.cc.stonybrook.edu/offires/Student%20Characteristics/
Graphs04/geofresh04g.shtml

All Students Financial Aid
http://www.stonybrook.edu/ugadmissions/fastfacts/

Editorial Board:
Nusrat Alam - immigrant - Bangladesh
Yuyu Chen - immigrant - China
Vanessa Gopez - 1st gen - Philippines
Huy Huynh - immigrant - Vietnam
Maria Ng - 1st gen - Hong Kong
Hao Nguyen - immigrant - Vietnam
Kim Sookoo - 1st gen - Trinidad
Emily Tu - 1st gen - China