This Blog is Not For Bigots [UPDATED]

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Welcome to Sepia Mutiny. If this is your first time visiting and you found us by reading the MSNBC/Newsweek article which commenced with: In Memory Of

The bodies had barely been removed when the racial epithets started pouring in. Cho Seung-Hui, the 23-year-old identified as the killer of 32 on the Virginia Tech campus, may have lived in the state since his elementary school days, but to the bigots in the blogosphere it was his origins in Korea that mattered most. “Koreans are the most hotheaded and macho of East Asians,” wrote one unnamed commentator on the Sepia Mutiny blog. “They are also sick and tired of losing their Korean girlfriends to white men with an Asian fetish.“

then please understand two very important truths:

1) Four out of the five comments which followed that quoted ignorance repudiated it consummately…

For shame.
This entire post decried stereotyping, and look at what you wrote about Koreans. My thoughts are with anxious students facebooking each other, heartbroken family members and everyone else affected by this tragedy. How can yours even go there? [SM]

2) “one unnamed commentator” does not speak for or represent this amazing, progressive, close-knit community

In fact, the views in the soundbite which MSNBC/Newsweek opportunistically and irresponsibly highlighted are NOT shared by the vast majority of those who write, comment or lurk here; they are the exception, not the rule on a blog which was created to enlighten, not divide. We are saddened that such a reputable and established source of news would misrepresent our site’s purpose and imply that the words of a rogue commenter are somehow indicative of the work we tirelessly try to do.

The bitter irony of this situation is that this website exists to create positive change and yet we were mischaracterized by an article about the valid concerns of the Korean American community after Monday’s massacre; as South Asian Americans, we sympathize and understand such issues because we are far too familiar with the concept of “backlash” ourselves.

We pray that Korean Americans are spared what Balbir Singh Sodhi suffered, that the rage which is to be expected after something so senseless isn’t misdirected so that it harms even more innocent people.

Just as one anonymous person who isn’t even a regular contributor here shouldn’t tarnish the reputation of an entire blog, one troubled, lost soul who took his pain out on innocents shouldn’t tarnish the reputation of an entire ethnic community. We are all suffering; let’s put aside the generalizations, stereotypes and impotent rage and work instead towards healing ourselves, our communities, our world.

::

This is what they have to say for themselves:

Dear Mr. Reeves,
I appreciate your note. Our intention was not to chastise Sepia Mutiny in any way–many blogs have been receiving derogatory comments, and Sepia is just one example. I think that anyone who visits the site will quickly find out what you speak of: that it’s an open forum for commentary, and with that comes the possibility of potentially-hateful comments. We would hope that our readers who are concerned about this site check it out and find that out for themselves. Unfortunately, unless we’ve introduced factual errors into a piece we do not print retractions, and we stand by this piece. I appreciate your input and interest and will keep it in mind as we move forward in our coverage.
Respectfully,
Jessica Bennett

Thanks for writing them, Maurice. We appreciate your efforts to rage against the useless, sloppy, too-proud-to-admit-they-erred machine.

295 thoughts on “This Blog is Not For Bigots [UPDATED]”

  1. “Anyone know if Fareed Zakaria reads SM?”

    Zakaria edits Newsweek International. USA editor is Jon Meacham. There seem to be a couple of different web editors. The authors of the article mentioning SM are Jessica Bennett and Noelle Chun.

  2. You should keep this post at the top for several days and we should (I mean, regular commenters who wish to do this) should write to Newsweek/MSNBC . Sadly, this kind of sloppiness goes on a lot in reporting these days (okay, by a lot, I mean sometimes. Still). It’s almost as if the writer went fishing to find one comment on the internet to support a meme. This is reporting? Ugh. Journalism and advocacy don’t mix, and shouldn’t.Good grief.

  3. First off–WAY TO GO Anna for calling MSNBC out on this first thing. This is absolutely ridiculous, and shameful. If the reporter of that article had done his/her research, they would have seen what a progressive and all-inclusive blog this is.

    Second–I intend to write to MSNBC.

    And Third–

    It’s also possible, if not probable, that the whole “backlash against Koreans / Asians” meme is entirely a media-driven phenomenon

    Indeed.

  4. Two possibilities — laziness or malice.

    1) They did not bother to visit SM and saw the comment referenced in some other site/blog such as Foreign Dispatches.

    2) They are regular lurkers and were looking for a comment like that to give SM some bad press. Ignoring the original post and all the other comments, and not posting a link can not be accidental.

  5. In LA, ABC news yesterday reported that a Korean mother said her son was spat on at school.

  6. I gather MSNBC has not looked at their readers’ comments about Sanjaya on the MSNBC’s AI blog. Jeez!

  7. Sorry Guys, I know how hard you have worked to keep this place a-hole free.

    I am going to give the writers the benefit of the doubt and assume that they did not read all the comments and are not regulars here.

    But that DOES NOT make it right.

  8. wow, this is ridiculous, i agree with MD. Many journalists or should say shockvalue journalists seem to be ‘creating’ the story and looking for supporting points, versus collecting a number of sources and evaluating the overall material and writing an actual piece.

  10. i’m wondering what’s stopping the MSNBC journalist from posting the comment themselves and then quoting it? Stephen Glass?

  11. This reminds me of “Bonfire of the Vanities”, where the hack journalist Peter Fallow builds his career on twisting facts to create a story that sells papers and builds up his career.

  12. “I gather MSNBC has not looked at their readers’ comments about Sanjaya on the MSNBC’s AI blog. Jeez!”

    that is an excellent point. and if msnbc had not disabled their comment on story feature, you would have found a treasure trove of such comments.

  13. So, I went to the Foreign Dispathes blog and the text referenced Salon? I am really tired of the blog first, think later, ethos of some of the blogosphere. I’ve seen the right-of-center blogs do it, and left-of-center blogs do it, go fishing for a comment to shove into ready made ideological boxes (yes, I know I made that comment already, yesterday). Hey, I’ve got a blog that discusses X, let’s find everything remotely related to X and extrapolate from that one comment! Like I said, ugh. Dear journalist reading this or any other blog, especially those on the opposite side of your own political thought, take a few seconds and click around to get a feel for the place? Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy….what else could they possibly be getting wrong?

  14. Wow, I’m so glad The Imugi wrote in – Just this week I was talking with an Asian American journalist and she was telling about angryasianman and how much she liked that blog and I of course had to tell her about sepiamutiny. I hope she doesn’t rely on the msnbc news and instead will read sepia a little bit more closely.

  15. Another piece of craptastic reporting by MSNBC and Newsweek. And A N N A, the work that you, Abhi, Amardeep and the other SM-ers do to keep this site running and troll-free is much, much appreciated by this frequent lurker and not so frequent commenter.

  16. I agree with Preston:

    It’s also possible, if not probable, that the whole “backlash against Koreans / Asians” meme is entirely a media-driven phenomenon.

    But this:

    Part of the racism driving the backlash against Arab Americans post 9/11 was the us-against-them mentality fostered by the president and the media. People were encouraged to see Arab Americans (and by extension, other brown people) as representatives of some violent ideological movement.

    seems out of place, as he conceeds:

    This is not the same dynamic as the Virginia Tech incident. No one, not even the wingnut right, is suggesting that Koreans in the US be targeted (and those same wackos were/are pretty cavalier in their disdain for Muslims).

    In fact the dynamic is probably the opposite. Newsweeks intentions were probably good. They see themselves as defenders of korean-americans and went on a fishing expedition, as MD writes, to confirm the pre-existing liberal stereotype of racist america.

  17. I go to lunch, I come back, I see this.

    I am stunned. Disbelieving. Disgusted.

    Any journalist worth his or her salt would have spent a few minutes perusing the site to get a feel for the general tone, maybe even tried to contact the contributors, and THEN set about quoting.

    This MSNBC article is such misrepresentation it makes me ill. MSNBC can contact any number of commenters or authors directly should they choose to; that they didn’t only serves to highlight my earlier point that America is becoming increasingly intolerant, bigoted, and stubbornly entrenched in its efforts to resist understanding anything unfamiliar or different.

  19. I hate to say this but that is how the news works,they are always looking for the negative and not the positive as you can see from the one post they picked out.

  20. Take heart folks. People believe what they want to believe. If they are interested enough they will take the time to come to this site and see the truth for themselves. If they are not interested enough then who cares – they will have forgotten the name of our site in two nanoseconds.

    What concerns me more is that I am a Newsweek reader (I know, its written at 5th grade level, but its a great one for the bathroom…ahem.. TMI…) and I am once again forced to face the fact that too often we take what we read on face value. How many more times do I need to be reminded that journalists’ ethics span the gamut? Until I take everything I read with a whopping heap of salt I guess.

  21. Call me paranoid, but that quote was so beyond the pale, and the fact that IT got picked as somehow representative of this site, that…I can’t help but think this was a setup, Mutineers. Some kind of collective bitchslap to the Mutiny. Some anonymous commenter comes along, says something ridiculous, and THAT IS WHAT REPRESENTS SM to the world?

    Yeah, I don’t think so. It just seems too coincidental.

  22. This MSNBC article is such misrepresentation it makes me ill. MSNBC can contact any number of commenters or authors directly should they choose to; that they didn’t only serves to highlight my earlier point that America is becoming increasingly intolerant, bigoted, and stubbornly entrenched in its efforts to resist understanding anything unfamiliar or different.

    I would revise that to say the the American press is interested in portraying American as increasingly intolerant and bigoted.

  23. OK we need a new word. I’m going to make one up right now.

    Frontlash. n. fig. a. A lie designed to make itself come true. b. Proactive prejudicial strike by members of the public when sudden pressure is applied, esp. through the mass media’s false report of such action. The media then reports the prejudicial strike as backlash. Usu. targeted at minorities. A form of self-fulfilling prophecy. Unlike a backlash, a frontlash can occur entirely by design, and it usually has inbuilt deniability. {see also: pogroms, Newsweek, racism, truthiness}.

  24. Frontlash. n. fig. a. A lie designed to make itself come true. b. Proactive prejudicial strike by members of the public when sudden pressure is applied, esp. through the mass media’s false report of such action. The media then reports the prejudicial strike as backlash. Usu. targeted at minorities. A form of self-fulfilling prophecy. Unlike a backlash, a frontlash can occur entirely by design, and it usually has inbuilt deniability. {see also: pogroms, Newsweek, racism, truthiness}.

    I Love It!!

  25. OK we need a new word. I’m going to make one up right now. Frontlash. n. fig. a. A lie designed to make itself come true. b. Proactive prejudicial strike by members of the public when sudden pressure is applied, esp. through the mass media’s false report of such action. The media then reports the prejudicial strike as backlash. Usu. targeted at minorities. A form of self-fulfilling prophecy. Unlike a backlash, a frontlash can occur entirely by design, and it usually has inbuilt deniability. {see also: pogroms, Newsweek, racism, truthiness}.

    Kobayashisan kokimiyoi!!

  26. Anna This is an intelligent site that is raising awareness on important, relevant issues. Keep up the good work and plod ahead like you all do, even more so in light of all the issues and misconceptions raised by this recent tragedy.

  29. Arigato! Now go forth and spread the word. Hey, summady forward it to Colbert for me.

  30. Excellent work, Kobayashi-sama. I’ll be forwarding this to the dictionary powers-that-be types. And maybe even Stephen Colbert!

  31. WTF. If they had to expose bigotry in the blogosphere, couldn’t they pick on one of the WN blogs, where such comments are entire articles, not to mention proudly endorsed by the blog?

  32. Kobayashi – what a fitting description of how society often acts today. And specifically of how the irresponsible authors of this article have acted.

    On a side note:

    Have the authors not seen Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle?

    We brown people love the Koreans!

  33. I wrote to Jessica Bennett at Newsweek:

    Dear Ms.Bennett, I’m writing you in response to your article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18178194/site/newsweek/ regarding the backlash against Korean-Americans following the shooting at Virginia Tech. You highlighted the site “Sepia Mutiny” in your article as indicative of the type of vitriol now being seen on the web. I think your characterization of Sepia Mutiny is wrong. I’ve been reading stories on the website for about a year now, and I’m always amazed by how open and loving of its members the site is. There are, as with any community, a few people who say regrettable things, but all in all, the site is very accepting.
    What you’ve done, however, is make the site appear cruel and hateful, which it is not, and I think that that action was reckless journalism.
    I ask you to please reprint a retraction, or at a minimum, state that the overwhelming majority of comments on the site do not look like the one you quoted.
    Thank you very much for your time.
    Sincerely,
    Maurice Reeves

    She responded (promptly, I might add):

    Dear Mr. Reeves,
    I appreciate your note. Our intention was not to chastise Sepia Mutiny in any way–many blogs have been receiving derogatory comments, and Sepia is just one example. I think that anyone who visits the site will quickly find out what you speak of: that it’s an open forum for commentary, and with that comes the possibility of potentially-hateful comments. We would hope that our readers who are concerned about this site check it out and find that out for themselves. Unfortunately, unless we’ve introduced factual errors into a piece we do not print retractions, and we stand by this piece. I appreciate your input and interest and will keep it in mind as we move forward in our coverage.
    Respectfully,
    Jessica Bennett

  34. MSM knows that blogs(like SM) give them a run for eyeballs/money. Naturally they will have a cavalier attitude.

    M. Nam

  35. Well, good for Jessica Bennet for so promptly responding, but I’m still, did anyone else find it a classic example of not quite getting the point (although, I’ll give her points for trying)?

  36. M. Reeves,

    that letter only makes me believe even more strongly that the comment was a plant, placed there to provide a story later on. It’s difficult (if not impossible) to prove or disprove one way or the other, but then again, why else? Of all the comments on the site, whence that one? How did it get quoted? It’s not a site about South Koreans, it’s about South Asians (which usually means Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans, etc). So how did the authors of that article come across that comment?

    It’s just too easy.

  37. unless we’ve introduced factual errors into a piece we do not print retractions,

    How can you argue factual errors when you’re reporting opinion? Doesn’t she know the difference?

  38. I can’t believe that reporter decided to quote the one person who made anti-korean remarks on this blog and basically ignore the majority of posters who admonished the views of that individual.

    As the guilty party here let me clarify that I am not anti-korean by any means. Far from it. I am a great admirer of east asians including koreans, as my other posts prove. They are the only non-european people to have successfully modernized, to have defeated western colonials and imperialists in war, to challenge the dominant west for supremacy in science, technology and commerce. That is good news for all non-westerners, for it opens up the game.

    If anything I thought that pointing out that koreans are the most “macho” of east asians was a compliment. That certainly was not a falsehood as other posters have pointed out, and as koreans themselves will proudly confirm. We have plenty desi posters here boasting how “martial” their particular ethnicity is compared to desis from other parts of the indian subcontinent. Being manly is clearly seen as something to be proud of. So how was my comment an insult? Similar comments were made about koreans when they defended their stores with guns during the LA riots a few years ago. And the comments then were made with admiration. Including by white supremacists.

    Perhaps I picked the wrong time to mention korean machismo. But the violation of MSNBC/Newsweek for picking on this isolated post in a blog that overwhelmingly takes a stand against racial profiling, as being representative of it, is far more egregious. Shame on them.

    By the way, I strongly suspect that it was this part of my post that probably provoked this sorry excuse for a journalist: “They are also sick and tired of losing their Korean girlfriends to white men with an Asian fetish.”

  39. I must say she explained it well. The response (here, to the MSNBC article), while not inappropriate, is certainly a case of much ado about nothing. Or, at the very least, making the proverbial mountain …

    While I can see how folks would take eprsonal offense to this hole situation, in the grand scheme of things, that isn’t what this MSNBC reporter implied (or wanted). She did not attach any adjectives to the SM blog itself, and clearly mentioned that it was a comment she was quoting. Anyone familiar with blogs and commenting in general knows that blogs are not responsible for the content of their comments.

    Just my 2 paisas.

  40. My theory is this: the comment was highlighted on another blog, picked up by yet another blog, and quoted through that, perhaps by not vetting the original blog comment and the context?

  42. Actually, I don’t think it is a mountain out of a molehill: what I was also responding to was the nature of the article and the methods by which the authors tried to ‘flesh out’ their thesis. In other words, rather than reporting, naturally, on a phenomenon, they went hunting for a quote to fit a meme; at least that’s how I read the article. Did anyone else get that feeling reading the original article, or am I off-base?

  43. I’m sorry, ANNA, but I kind of feel like this was bound to happen. I don’t think SM is as “progressive” a community as you would like it to be. FOR WHATEVER REASON, it attracts a lot of people who think the way the person quoted in the Newsweek article does. I’m sorry, but SM is the kind of place where certain people can make blanket statements about Islam being “barbaric” without being banned b/c they’ll call them “stupid” or “idiotic” if they disagree, where people who question white privilege are slammed as being “racists” and where any discussion of a South Asian female turns into a “hot or not” contest.

    Progressive may be the ideal, but you’re far from it. That Newsweek comment doesn’t represent SM as a whole, but it does represent a very strong element of it. Sorry, just my two cents.

  44. And your average John Q. Taxpayer wouldn’t be able to discern “Sepiamutiny = blog about Indian diaspora, South Asian interest, etc..” They’d actually have to come in to check it out.

    But I’m with Salil, I think it’s a plant. Turnaround time was way too quick.

  45. Just sensational reporting at it’s worst. The reporter was probably just looking for a ‘backlash’ angle and quoted whatever they could find.

  46. i JUUUUUSST found this website on monday, had a cheshire grin all week, and now – (!) aside from being outed – its totally misrepresented. kudos to you mutineers for an excellent blog. consider the newsweek reference a way for new pple directed here to see what you’re all about.

  48. Huma, that’s not fair. That’s like me going to Huffington Post, reading about death wishes for Cheney, and saying the whole Huffington Post should be tarred by that brush. Or anti-Indian anti-outsourcing comments at Kos or Kevin Drum.

  50. LOL, Al M. I guess we can judge blogs by their commenters…..sheesh. Does Newsweek teach a course of fishing for comments at the lowest common denominator blogs?