Asians in the Library: A Rant

By now I’m sure some of you have heard of the “Asians in the library” rant by UCLA student, Alexandra Wallace. In just under 3 minutes, Alexandra manages to lump millions of Asians into a mass of defenseless, rude, unassimilated and poorly brought up people. If you haven’t seen the video, she complains that “all the asians” talk on the phone in the library, bring their family members over all the time, and and are all-around ill mannered. In quite apparent frustration, she attempts to remind them, “if you’re going to go to UCLA, use American manners.” She relegates every Asian language to three words: “Chingchong, linglong tingtong,” and then goes on to describe herself as a nice, polite, American girl who always asks the Asians in the library to be quiet.

You’ve also probably heard about the recent earthquake followed by a tsunami in Japan--causing indescribable damage, and killing almost 10,00 people so far, with another 16,000 missing. This girl brushes the natural disaster off as the “tsunami thing,” and saying that though she knows it sounds horrible, people shouldn’t be in the library checking on their families anyways--they should go outside and do it.

This is a prime example of pathos gone wrong. Perhaps this girl meant to get--support? sympathy? for her tribulations.Though her video did elicit passion, it was one filled with largely outrage and fury. Like the general public, I wasn’t able to identify with her at all but instead felt sickened by her lack of education and compassion, particularly about her flippant comment about the tsunami in Japan. Coupled with weak logos (are we really to believe every single Asian talks on the phone in the library and no one else does?) and nonexistent ethos (its hard to be persuaded by someone peppering their argument with “like,” and for me, it was hard to even find her character likeable), this video was an overall rhetorical failure.

On a semi-unrelated note, there has been, obviously, a huge, negative response to this girls video; hateful comments and parody videos have sprung up everywhere, and Alexandra has purportedly received death threats. As an assimilated American with Asian heritage, this video was especially provoking for me. Though the video obviously disgusted me, it made me just as sad to see comments such as “she’s blonde...she doesn’t know any better” or “dumb blondes don’t go to the library,” with these people realizing that though she made horrible stereotypes, they are, by criticizing her like this, furthering others.