Ching Chong Ling Long Ting Tong!

I thought I had seen the worst of insensitive things this weekend when I read news articles about celebrities' tweet reaction to the tsunami and this picture of facebook statuses where people think the Tohuku earthquake and Sendai tsunami were retribution for Pearl Harbor. But it wasn’t so.

In just a few hours, a video posted barely 3 days ago, by a UCLA student exploded and went completely viral all over YouTube and the student community. The responses to this video were trending continuously on the YouTube home page for 2 days before I actually got to see the actual ‘racist’ rant by Alexandra Wallace. After attacks from the student community, she took down the video from her channel, but there were consequently a number of reposts of her video, like this one here that has scored over 4 million hits already. Despite requests from the poster to please not leave offensive comments, as the video is just a mirror, not the original, FrapMocha was forced to disable commenting because of the nature of many of the commentsWallace's video, titled Asians in the Library is a recording of herself where she speaks about how Asian students who come to UCLA should adopt American mannerisms. After a disclaimer where she says she's not a politically correct person, so her video should not be considered offensive, she describes how hordes of Asian students that live around her bring their families to do their laundry, buy their groceries and cook their food for the week. She further goes on to describe how they talk on the phone in the library during finals week.

Wallace is a student at one of the top schools of the world- so contrary to the popular vox, I wouldn't call her a 'bimbo', although her unbelievably tight tank top doesn't help. The first thought that comes to your mind is, what the hell was she thinking?? She now has been receiving death threats and has been forced to reschedule her finals because both her address and finals schedule were on the university website. But after 3 days, she's making it to the front page of leading dailies and you start to wonder, publicity gimmick? Bikini pictures of her have been leaked online, and T-shirts with the slogan 'Ohhh, Ching Chong Ling Long Ting Tong' are selling online with the proceeds going to the tsunami relief, so 'insensitively'(picture me air-quoting here) mentioned in Wallace's video. Of course, the name of the website is http://ohhhchingchonglinglongtingtong.com/

But what Wallace's video gave rise to was a zillion response videos- some sincere, some outright hilarious, some music remixes, some moderately offensive, but mostly extremely racist! I am not posting any of those links here. Fight fire with fire, yes, but if you call someone racist, and you respond with an equally, if not more racist tirade, how are you making your point? Wait, what is your point? You claim she is dumb(tsunami happened in Japan, hello! Chinese can't pronounce their L's and so on), then why do the exact same thing she did? Many of the responses actually have words that need to be censored out, whereas officials are still investigating if Wallace violated any of the university’s code of conduct. Eugene Volokh, a First Amendment scholar and a professor at UCLA School of Law, said he could not identify any statements made in the video that would not be constitutionally protected.

How do we define racism in society today? Wallace says she has no problems with the number of Asian students coming into UCLA, but they should learn to be like the Romans when in Rome. That is racist. But when the people posting responses and reactions use counter-racist abuses against White people and blondes(wait, is that racist? What do you call that discrimination?), that is acceptable? When she imitates Chinese students around her, it is wrong, but when Russell Peters does it, it is funny. I am not in favor of what she did. Racism is a very sensitive issue. But my point is, the first person who hints at it is always the one who is attacked.

All in all, I'm sure Alexandra Wallace will be thrashed for the next couple of weeks, and after having received her 15 mins of fame(which would be her stepping stone to her career(she's reputedly been picked up for the audience of Jersey Shore next season- don't ask me, I have never watched the show!), or the end of her political career before it even began), she will vanish beyond YouTube's horizon, just the the Celebrity today.

Probably Jen Aniston, you should take a leaf out of this apolitically correct student's book- you wanted a campaign for smartwater with kids and puppies and your adorable self, and called it your sex tape; Wallace scored over half as many hits as your video, in less than one-third the time. Racism trends more than sleaze, apparently.

PS: I could not find the video where she uploaded her apology: Clearly, the original video posted by me was inappropriate. I cannot explain what possessed me to approach the subject as I did, and if I could undo it, I would. I’d like to offer my apology to the entire UCLA campus. For those who cannot find it within them to accept my apology, I understand.