Speaking of unhinged people in media, we’d be remiss if we didn’t at least mention the train wreck that recently went down at San Francisco’s AsianWeek newspaper, where a complete idiot by the name of Kenneth Eng, 22 years of age, wet behind the ears, hot under the collar, too big for his britches and bats in his belfry, has been allowed to write a column called, interestingly, “God of the Universe,” in which he spewed moronic racist rants against white people, fellow Asian people, and Black and Latino people, apparently unchecked until his most recent gem blew the lid off the whole damn pot. Entitled, “Why I Hate Black People,” it explained, well, why Kenneth Eng hates black people. Though he also likes to call them Negroes. The column has been pulled and AsianWeek, which ran this guy’s infantile bloviations for a number of months, has now issued a pathetic, simpering apology, but the text has been preserved for posterity in various places on the interwebs. Here is a wee sample:
Contrary to media depictions, I would argue that blacks are weak-willed. They are the only race that has been enslaved for 300 years. It is unbelievable that it took them that long to fight back. On the other hand, we slaughtered the Russians in the Russo-Japanese War.
You’ll find a link to a PDF of the whole thing here. Anyway, at the risk of over-extending this fool’s fifteen seconds of fame, I also wanted to draw your attention to his soapbox at Amazon, where he’s also peddling some really atrocious fantasy writing (there’s a link to excerpts on this page). He writes on his Amazon blog:
Let’s look at the muslim religion. They believe that music, dance, naked women and other such things are “indecent”. They think that some creature called “allah” will bring them peace, yadda, yadda, yadda. They think that if they bow every day, they will somehow be transported to a place called “heaven”, where everyone looks conspicuously human. I don’t know about you, but I masturbate all the time. It’s not going to affect me in any way, aside from making me need to take baths more often. And listening to O Fortuna will not make my head explode. Nor will spitting at every church I see make my intestines burst out of my abdomen.
Furthermore, most religious people I’ve met tend to be incredibly stupid/poor. They are usually black/hispanic immigrants who do not have the brains or the balls to understand science and thus resort to reading retarded stories about saviors and saints. (Oh, by the way, for those of you who want to scream at how “racist” I am for mentioning negroes and hispanics in such a way, go to someone who gives a sh*t).
OK, that’s enough of that. So what’s this AsianWeek anyway? Here’s a take from Neelanjana Banerjee, who was once a reporter and editor there. AsianWeek’s pitch to advertisers says the paper is aimed at “1.5, 2nd and 3rd generation Asian Americans” — basically the East Asian equivalent of a lot of y’all macacas reading this site. You’d think someone there would have had the sense to sever young Mr. Eng’s ties to the paper a long time ago. I’m all for free speech, but I’ve rarely seen a more compelling case for blacklisting (pun intended! ha ha Kenneth, I said blacklisting!) — or maybe just an good ol’ fashioned beatdown. Happy Friday everybody!
poplicks, one of my favorite sites, also has a great commentary/discussion about this here and here.
my fave from their commentary are these lines:
I have to agree with his views on religion.
Moor Nam,
He has typical desi views.
Whitey is contemptible for oppressing half of humanity for a couple hundred years and pushing their religion like a cheap heroin substitute. Muslims, the same.
Latinos and Blacks are contemptible for getting oppressed and mentally aping their oppressors. Even such an upright firebrand as Malcolm X who saw the delusion ended up in another one just as harrowing.
Fellow Asians are contemptible because they are on the same destructive path that Africans and Latinos tread long ago. The Latinos and Africans had no Chinua Achebe to guide them. Asians do have that knowledge.
His views are coarse, raw, unrefined, thick-headed, and judging by the bell curve stuff, racist as well. But like anything else, there is a diamond hidden away beneath the surface.
Strangely enough, I’ve encountered a few “Kenneth Eng”‘s in my life. Their self-hate and anger is so palapable. I often question the origin of their beliefs and wonder if it stems from their childhood environment or do they have (as Siddhartha so eloquently stated) bats in the belfry? Or both? Regardless of what he’s written, the editors didn’t have a problem with the content of his work. I’m actually more curious about the editors…are they slacking on the job or do they agree with his columns?
here’s the thing — if somebody put an eng-style post on a blog like this, we’d all ignore it right? no sense in feeding the troll – the guy is clearly doing this to get attention, the stir some people up, etc. at the end of the day, he’s just another idiot with another set of self-esteem issues he needs to work out with a shrink. personally, i find the fact that his article is getting SO much attention nation-wide is a little ridiculous. the petitions, the media lashings, and the public announcements by asian groups in the bay area are all giving him exactly what he wants. by reacting so publicly to his article, we’re giving him 15 minutes of fame, and almost, in a way, admitting that what he’s saying might be true. i wouldn’t give this guy another mention – ignore the trolls, and they’ll go away.
I think everything that could be said about the duty of the editors and the poor quality of the writing has been said. Though I’m inclined to give Eng a little bit of a pass because he’s still young… and lord knows I’ve often said some off the cuff randomness in the heat of the moment. Maybe he’ll grow out of it.
That aside, I can’t help but wish the piece was better written. I’ve been getting increasingly irritated with the idea that ANY criticism of the black community is either 1. automatically racist when coming from a non-black or 2. is self hating or needs to be qualified with “I’m not conservative/republican, BUT…”
It’s counterproductive and leaves an entire community completely blameless.
So yes, I would have preferred to see someone not black, with a higher level of awareness, write an article that could be critical of the black community. Without the blatantly racist spin and without comparing black americans to other groups of minorities. It ain’t all good in Chinatown.
The above should continue with:
“I’m not conservative/republican, BUT…” when coming from a black person.
Branch Dravidian (#17):
Do we know that he’s of Chinese descent? As far as I know, Eng is a Vietnamese name.
Maurice Reeves,
“Oh, insidethebeltway, he’s an equal opportunity bigot? That makes it a lot better! Hate’s at least marginally acceptable when it’s spewed on everyone.”
What’s wrong with being a misanthrope? And how is being a misanthrope considered racist? There’s no U.S. law against hating. The only laws that protect against discrimination apply to companies with a staff of 20 or more, organizations that provide a needed service, organizations that receive federal funding except churches*. Apart from within those special circumstances, nothing prevents people from disliking anyone for any arbitrary reason and acting out on those dislikes so long as no violence, stalking, or harassment results.
The irony of some psycho chump with the given name ennis passing dime a dozen comments on an asian-african bilateral issue was not lost on me. I don’t have words to describe what a putz this guy is.
Except that nobody called Ennis has passed any comments on this, and the original post was by Siddhartha. What were you saying about psycho-chumps and putzs? And shouldnt you be calling for your psychiatric nurse to change your diaper after soiling yourself just now?
So, we’re hatin’ on each other now? I didn’t get that memo! Dag, and all my life I’ve been lovin them, they’ve been lovin me. A sistah should be told! I was curious to know how a person with an education could come to such idiotic conclusions so I looked up some of his other writings and it’s crap, along with his claim of being the youngest published sci-fi author in the US at age 20. I suspect plagerism in the instances where his words rise above the excremental. But seriously, kid’s got ISSUES and the problems he’s encountered were brought on by his own actions. According to him, Hitler was admirable, suicide is fine if you’re a loser, and only morons believe in God. He goes around shouting this bilge from the hilltop and wonders why people wanna knock him off it. “Oh, I’m SO oppressed!” he whines, “This is supposed to be the land of free speech!” while depriving the rights of those who disagree. He seems awful lazy to me. Why bother learning the truth when you can dismiss everyone as inferior? Why bother being decent when you can elicit a greater reaction being a jerk and whine, “Oh, they don’t like me cause I’m Asian.” I’m not really bothered by the ravings of this ignorant asshat. I was more interested in knowing how the Asian community would respond because honestly, except for some isolated cases, this is news to me. (I grew up just OUTSIDE the Beltway) As I figured, most of the Asian community was digusted and suspect the few posts who agreed with him were from Eng himself. And people wonder why we have a Black History month? Still it makes me wonder if someone, somewhere is sitting in a really expensive chair(or hooded robe), smiling over his tea (Jack Daniels) thinking “Damn! Divide and Conquer still works!”
As someone who works in mental health, I’m actually very curious as to how Kenneth Eng’s personality and beliefs developed. I would think it would be very instructive for his future therapist to read his sci-fi novel to get a window on his fantasy life. This combination of narcissistic and antisocial personality traits is notoriously difficult to change. But who knows, maybe he’ll fall in love with an African-American Christian and his elaborate superstructure of defense mechanisms against shame and humiliation will crumble.
chick, I love Junichi and Oliver, so props on the pops shoutout 🙂
Natwarlal, what diamond could you possibly be referring to?
How did it come to this? Two years ago, someone started to spam Internet messageboards with “anonymous” messages praising Kenneth Che-Tew Eng and his debut sci-fi novel “Dragons: Lexicon Triumvirate” to the skies.
Naturally, lots of people (myself included) suspected that Che-Tew Eng was behind the spam, and we mocked him on the science-fiction messageboards. After a while, the spamming for Eng’s book ceased, and I thought that was the last we’d seen of him.
And now this. Not in my wildest dreams did I imagine that he’d find a newspaper willing to print his rants, or that he become notorious enough that Nancy Pelosi would mention his name… the mind boggles. What’ll he do next?
Woah! I hadn’t even read the blog all weekend long, let alone the comments. WTF? Why drag me into this? And why drag my handle? In case you hadn’t figured it out, Ennis is a pseudonym, hence “Ennis Singh Mutinywale” – there aren’t a huge number of Indo-Irish Sikhs out there …
Sheesh!
p.s. thanks Ruby.
medical diagnosis: eng suffers from high functioning autism. and a ‘god complex’ as mentioned by poplicks.
treatment: ignore him, that or send him to um..namibia and work in the orphanage that madonna adopted from.. although vietnam per brangelina is the new hotspot.
local recurrence rate: high, since his rants or ramblings, or trash as i’d like to see it grates a lot of folks (myself included)
metastatic rate: hopefully low.. and it doesn’t spread to the masses.. although it seems as though it already has.
I hate everything in this stupid world I hate every boy and I hate every girl I don’t like the way my mommy talks to me I don’t like prison but I hate being free Cause I’m a hater, hater, Hater MC the only thing I hate is when you don’t hate me
I don’t like blacks, I don’t like Jews, I don’t like people with leather in their shoes, I don’t like Target, I can’t stand Macy’s, I can’t live with gringos, Hispanics or Desis. Cause I’m a hater, hater, Hater MC the only thing I hate more than you is me
Vietnamese, Siamese, Chinese, waste of my time, I don’t like Benjamins, Lincolns, nickels or dimes, I hate stupid rap music, hate country, but it’s jazz that really makes me sick to my gut Don’t you know I’m a hater, hater, Hater MC I hate the way macaca hate yo peepee
I don’t like your writing cause it’s better than mine, I don’t like your girlfriend, cause she’s too damn fine I don’t like morning and I don’t like the night, I don’t like my pants cause the crotch is too damn tight Believe me, I’m a hater, hater, Hater MC the only thing I like is not liking me.
too many drama queens on this forum.
Eng’s “Dragon” book wings have been clipped. He’s burying himself. Such is the law of attraction…
http://www.maynardije.org/columns/dickprince/070302_prince/
By the way, you will have to scroll much further down the page to find the story…
Last, but not least. A very interesting picture of Eng…
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/rnr/287034423.html
Now thats a quite a dickhead we have there.
Hey everyone is missing an interesting tidbit: that for several years, AsianWeek had an editor of South Asian origin.
I found her perspective, on the Hyphen magazine blog, really interesting. AsianWeek has always had a problem being pan Asian, and it was interesting to hear her say it was just a marketing technique. Its sad, because there are very few pan Asian publications.
This story has gone all over the world, and reached people who normally would never hear about it. Its definitely going to affect Asian Americans — and yes that includes us– for some time to come.
I am just so angry that its often idiots with no historical understanding who get the floor and get heard, through a newspaper that pretends to speak for us.
Its sad the lack of historical knowledge, about Asian Americans, and South Asian Americans, that seems to be plaguing younger people, and newer people.
In a lesser way I’m often angry that South Asians recently coming to this country, who get into the corridors of power, try to speak for all South Asian Americans. They often have zero understanding of civil rights history, and say things that totally invalidate the hard civil rights work that many South Asian Americans have put in over the years, founding networks, institutions, and policies that paved the way for newer, educated immigrants to come in and speak for us.
I think we really need to educate people about our history in the diaspora. Both the educated immigrants, who are often our voices whether we like it or not, and younger people.
Eng is a writer of fiction. All of his stupid opinions are not based on facts. I don’t believe he has conducted scientific studies using sound statistical methods. How can he conclude all black people are inferior when he has only seen a grand total of one black in person?
Unfortunately, for the last 35 years, his opinions are nothing new to the Desi community. Ditto for the Vietnamese, etc. My Vietnamese friends used to have misconceptions of lazy African Americans, etc. All people of Asian origin should be thankful and grateful to Black Americans. If it weren’t for them and people like MLK, we would have no voting rights, etc. We probably would not even be in the US!
Via angryasianman I found this video of Eng on Fox News. It’s pretty painful to watch. But I laughed out loud when he said, “If there is a God, it must be me.”
The more I learn about what serious mental health and personality disorder issues Kenneth Eng has, the less angry I get at Eng for writing his spew and the more angry I get at AsianWeek for printing it.
For those of you who don’t live in San Francisco, AsianWeek is owned by the Fang family, a Bay Area Chinese-American family that has owned a bunch of different media outlets at various times. If a paper is owned by the Fangs, count on it to have low editorial standards and to serve as a shill for the Fang family’s political cronies.
I don’t blame Eng himself for this whole shitstorm, because he can’t help being a whack job, and there are unfortunately plenty of other whack jobs like Eng from every race and ethnicity. I put the blame squarely on the Fang family and their cronies in the AsianWeek editorial staff, for pretending to be the voice of Asian-Americans and yet printing columns from a guy who’s very obviously not playing with a full deck. Those scumbags have given us a huge black eye thanks to their own incompetence, and we deserve far better than a magazine claiming to speak for us which is owned by the Fangs.
i saw that fox news thingie too naina…
britney spears has found a roommate… ‘antichrist’ meet ‘god’.
Please – please tell me the youtube version is dubbed over. Or did he really say those things? I don’t watch Fox, can anyone – chickpea – confirm?
but the negative cultural stereotypes are formed and reinforced in the US itself by the mainstream media and hollywood, may new asian immigrants get taken in by all that. it takes considerable time living the US to get skeptical enough. even then if you lead a ghettoed life, it is difficult.
it’s real.
he really is a high functioning autistic or seriously at a disconnect with the world.
Kenneth, thank you for your admission of deviant sexual behavior. Now I know that too much masturbation could, indeed, destroy brain cells. I’ll pass the word around so my friends are saved from the same idiocy that has seized the ant-sized mass between your ears. But in your case, sir, I’d like to know which came first: your being an idiot or a masturbator.
Simply put, Kenneth is a misanthrope. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that since humanity has be responsible for causing all the problems the world has ever faced. Just because he categorizes races specifically stating their weaknesses/strengths doesn’t make him a racist, but more like a scientist. I’m glad someone with balls speaks what he thinks instead of cowering down and “apologizing” for everything offensive. Most people are brainwashed and are taught not to freely think for themselves lest they offend someone of weaker character. Political correctness will be the end of us until someone steps forth and defies this societal cancer.
been* P.S. Stop reckless human procreation. The world can’t carry us all.
Great points. I felt the same way about blogging this fool. He doesn’t need anymore recognition for his fowl mouth and crass opinions, but something about someone so wrong really tells us about our society and personal feelings about race. I like(d) AsianWeek. I hope they’ve learned from their mistakes.
For the record, Eng is not a Vietnamese name as one or two posters had suggested! Not that I would be ashamed of him being Vietnamese. After all, he’s just one in several billion people expressing his personal view. Why AsianWeek published the article is more interesting stuff. I like his view on religion; not so much his view on race. Either he’s real sick or he’s super intelligent like he claims he is. Either case, he has proved that the majority of posters on this site are losers. Many of you are proud to have joined the herd in beating down a sick man, eh? You don’t think he’s sick? But he did get under your skin? Well, may be he’s not the dumbass you think he is? I am not saying that he’s not, but I wouldn’t be so quick to judge.
I read the article and thought it might be an opportunity for the two communities to talk to each other. I filmed a segment with Mr Floyd Mori of the Japanese American Citizens League. We posted 2 segments on YouTube and here are the links. Please view them and express you comments. Maurice Carver Executive Producer/Host – Black Men Screaming
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYckgdoR8NI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqShFjk6BoE
Yeah, he IS the dumbass we think he is. He’s definitely not brilliant. His lousy writing is proof of that. His ‘scientific’ prowess is BS. We call it “baffling them with your bullshit”. But perhaps if enough people recognise his f’d up mental state, he’ll shut up and get some help.
After the FoxNews interview, Gibson made the following comments about Eng: In a radio discussion of the interview later, Gibson called Eng “a nut job” and said, “He wasn’t actually wearing a strait jacket, believe it or not.”
“He was a little besiged when he came in,” Gibson said. “He comes in the studio and immediately does a 360. There’s Jack, the guy who does the audio, who’s black; Oscar, the cameraman who focuses on him is black,” and so are two other members of the radio crew.
“He was feeling a little besieged,” Gibson repeated.
Ok, now, I’m just waiting for the Cho/Eng connection. Did you read about the disturbing behavior Cho exhibited prior to his rampage? Did it remind you of anyone? About two weeks ago, Eng posted reply to the FoxNews video to drone on about a concept he has no understanding, and in the middle of it states that the killing of cashiers, teachers and lawyers would make little difference to the world as they are people of limited awareness and impact on the world. (wtf?) During the video, he had the home address of a woman who had criticized his ‘work’,scrolling down the video.(hmm stalking?) That video was left for weeks while YouTube ignored several reports of TOS violations. I had alerted her about it, but she had already reported it a week prior. The day after the shooting, Eng posted another video LAUGHING about it and congratulating Cho! (You will find Eng has posted blogs advocating violent protest and murder going back a few years. It was like he was taking credit for VA Tech) That video lasted about a day and YouTube finally removed both of his videos. If you read Eng’s NYU experience and some of his other ramblings like the dragon book that describes rather violent behaviors (it’s rather obvious that the dragon character is himself, who thinks he’s incredibly scientific and superior to others)…doesn’t it paint a similar picture to that of Cho’s? The boy doesn’t need a hug, he NEEDS a straighjacket! STAT! And it should happend before headlines read “Eng was questioned but…..”.
Fuck that son of a bitch Kenneth. Stupid fucker doesn’t even deserve to have his filthy name mentioned in the media. He can kiss my ass.
THE GUY IS CRAZY.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/05/23/BAGDFQ05N86.DTL
am i the only one that thinks tahat this guy is an ass hole?for those of you who don,t know,everyone in this world has black in thier background,and did you know that two black persons can have a white baby?black people are the only people who can have other babies from different ethnic groups.thats because every race comes from black.and i am sure that if the man knew what he was talking about then he would know that slavery begins with white people.and black are really special people,but people don,t look at it that way.if you notice, black people are the only ethnic group that have what peple call kinky hair or dry hair.every other ethnic group have eiether straight ,curly and pretty hair.black people are one of the most unique people.so that man needs to get his facts straight.
kenneth eng is entitled to his opinion
you fuckin dick allah is how u say god in arabic u dumbshit he isnt a creature he is GOD u idiot all u asians are stupid.
you fuckin dick allah is how u say god in arabic u dumbshit he isnt a creature he is GOD u idiot all u asians are stupid.
Hmm a racist Asian? Well that’s new..rolls eyes Funny, I havent found his bit on white people. You sure he wrote one?