University official’s joke is no laughing matter

the racist slur of Chancellor Thomas Keon, the CEO of Purdue University Northwest matters, even though most people are trying to hide it for the holidays. SCREENSHOT

Filipinos know all about Asian American hate. It starts with a slur and then builds until we are in the crosshairs. That’s why the racist slur of Chancellor Thomas Keon, the CEO of Purdue University Northwest matters, even though most people are trying to hide it for the holidays.

Ironically, the one person who can make it right is an Asian American immigrant from Hong Kong, set to become the next president of all of Purdue University on Jan. 1. This is where we are in what I still insist is an important moment in Asian American history.

If you’re still catching up to the story, on Dec. 10 at the Purdue Univ NW commencement, Keon, a white educated man in accounting of all things, acted the dumb white insensitive male and used an accent that sounded like doggerel but in fact was Asian.  We know because he admitted it while in the act. The astonishing self-awareness of a racist.

See the video here for full context, if you missed it. (A keynote speaker ends, and the Keon takes the stage and delivers his slur).

This situation potentially could have been a teaching moment for the entire nation about Asian Americans and social justice had it been handled properly.

We are, after all, coming out of a three year period where the organization #StopAAPIHate has recorded more than 11,000 hate instances against AAPI. From minor to major transgressions, a verbal slight to assault, sometimes resulting in death. This is the hate that’s emerged in American society since Donald Trump began  scapegoating Asian Americans for what he called the “Kung Flu” and “China Virus.”

A slur is more than a slip. And Keon’s slur now in 2023, shows the nation still doesn’t get it. He should have stepped down from his leadership role of an institution of higher learning immediately. It was an example America needed to see.

No confidence vote, but no resignation

Instead, Keon, the accounting guy, wasn’t fully held accountable for the harm his public speech can cause. He simply tried to will it all away as if no one would notice. Asian Americans are just 3 percent of his campus, after all.

But when the matter didn’t go away, Keon finally issued a kind of bureaucratic apology for the files on Dec. 14 indicating the slur didn’t express his values nor the university’s. The board of trustees, not wanting controversy, hastily accepted his story.

That’s when the faculty senate was enraged and voted to demand Keon’s resignation.

When Keon didn’t resign last week, a majority of Purdue Northwest’s tenure-track and clinical faculty, including department heads and deans gave Keon a “no confidence” vote.

The vote was not close, 135 to 20.

Keon still didn’t resign, even though this was his second no confidence vote this year. Apparently, Keon is not highly regarded by faculty, but he stays on, amid a general sense of incompetence and now a very damning example of racism caught at no less than a graduation event that’s on YouTube.

And yet the attempts by the board to save Keon’s job have been extraordinary. Most amusing is how everyone knows it’s racist, and yet, there is such a willingness to discount it so much, it’s as if there is no real infraction.

Even national writers have taken on the “Poor Keon” tone, acknowledging racism, but say Keon shouldn’t lose his job or be force into retirement. It’s a kind of gaslighting 2.0.

It happened; we’re not going to pretend it didn’t happen. But we’re going to treat the perpetrator like it didn’t happen.Everyone thinks about poor Chancellor Keon.

No one thinks about people like Vichar Ratanapakdee, the 84 year old Thai man who was killed in San Francisco on Jan. 28 2021 after a man shoved him to the ground in a hate attack.

Or Filipino American Vilma Kari in New York who survived a BRUTAL BEATING as she was walking to church in 2021. Or another Filipino American, Noel Quintana, who was slashed across the face in a New York City subway. And those are just three names.

Anti-Asian American hate? It begins with an accent that “others” us and makes AAPI vulnerable. That’s what Keon knows he did. Once in public should be enough, because you know he would harbor all those anti-Asian thoughts in private, waiting to unleash his “jokes.” But the Purdue Board of Trustees, though recognizing the racism, wants to see a pattern in Keon’s behavior before they go beyond reprimand.

An AAPI faculty member speaks

“There should be consequences for his behavior, and a reprimand is not the answer,” a tenured faculty member of PNW emailed me this morning. “His behavior is a trigger for many and is still disturbing. He should resign or be fired. I am still livid.”

I gave the faculty member anonymity to allow for full candor.

“I know many Asian faculty that have experienced micro-aggressions from students, faculty, and leadership,” my source told me. “This behavior triggered deep pain for my colleagues.”

And then the person admitted she herself had experienced the microaggressions from a colleague. “I followed procedure (went to HR and reached out to my department chair). The faculty member was tenured and nothing happened.”

Like now?

If the board of trustees doesn’t act, then justice is up to the next president of Purdue, Dr. Mung Chiang.

He’s a young hot shot academic, a Hong Kong immigrant who went to Stanford, starred in engineering at Princeton, and was lured to head the engineering school at Purdue the last five years.

He also served as science advisor to the xenophobic and racist Trump administration.

Will he or won’t he rock the boat. Chiang’s response as president could turn a  failure to act in 2022 to a new hope in 2023.

That would signal a real change in America. The first Asian American president fires the racist chancellor who told a bad Asian joke. That’s almost too good to be true.

NOTE: I will talk about this column and other matters, and even wish you a Happy New Year on “Emil Amok’s Takeout,” my AAPI micro-talk show. Live @2p Pacific. Livestream on Facebook; my YouTube channel; and Twitter. Catch the recordings on www.amok.com.

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. He writes a column for the North American bureau of the Inquirer.net.