Fox News Channel
1211 Avenue of the Americas
2nd Floor
New York, New York 10036
To Fox News,
On the evening of Thursday, July 10th, during a segment of “The Five”, host Bob Beckel called the Chinese “the single biggest threat to the national security of the U.S.” and said, “As usual, we bring them over here and we teach a bunch of Chinamen, err, Chinese people, how to do computers and then they go back to China and hack into us.” He went on to say “So, China..” and made a punching motion with an arm gesture that means “F*** You.”, thereby insulting 20 percent of the world’s population. Later in the segment, he says, “Doesn’t anybody worry about these people? There’s billions of ‘em. And all they do is hack into our stuff, they send us cheap toys, all of which got lead in ‘em and they’re killing kids.”
Beckel made similar remarks last year when he said of himself after going swimming his “eyes blew up, and it made me look Oriental.”, and even said that we should restrict Chinese student immigration to the US “‘cause Chinese students are brought here, taught computers, go back home and hack us.”
Xenophobic and racist sentiments such as these promote misunderstanding and hatred, and are what led to the murder of Vincent Chin, as well as bullying and threats towards Asian Pacific Islander Americans today. While we applaud Mr. Beckel’s concerns regarding child product safety and our nation’s cyber-security, the pejorative terms ‘Chinamen’ and ‘Oriental’, which bring us back to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, when Chinese in this country were the only ethnic group barred from citizenship, are not only outdated, but deeply offensive. Also, the assumption that all those of Chinese descent are guilty until proven innocent is un-American, and the exact kind of thinking that led our government to force more than 100,000 loyal Japanese Americans into internment camps during World War II.
Albert Wang, Bay Area chairman of the Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs Association said: “Chinese-Americans play a pivotal role in the development of U.S. advanced technology, making up half of Silicon Valley’s scientists and engineers. They were deeply hurt by Beckel’s words.”
As an Asian American Greek organization that seeks to combat racism and spread cultural awareness, we join Congressmembers Mike Honda and Judy Chu, State Senator Ted Lieu, and other Asian American organizations to call for Mr. Beckel’s resignation and apology.
Sincerely,
Andrew Kayserian
National President
Pi Delta Psi Fraternity, Inc.
Attachment:
07.24.2014 Beckel Statement_Signed
There has been only one sustained project involving direct collaboration between national Asian American fraternities and sororities. That project, born out of a partnership between advocacy group APIA (Asian Pacific Islander American) Vote and the National APIA PanhellenicAssociation (NAPA), is Project Five Percent.The project aims to highlight APIA issues in national politics by registering APIA youth to vote. The hope is that higher Asian American voter turnout would sway candidates to cater to the issues of our community.