Asian Week On Notice Eng Was Racist Prior to Recent ColumnPaul Hogarthbyline‚ Mar. 05‚ 2007On February 28th, Asian Week apologized for publishing Kenneth Eng’s column “Why I Hate Blacks,” and announced that Eng would no longer write for them. Editor Ted Fang apologized in a March 1st press conference, and on March 2nd held a community forum about race relations. But Fang has yet to explain how the column was ever published, or why they did not take action earlier when Eng wrote similar columns for the newspaper. When first confronted about the column, Editor-in-Chief Samson Wong replied that they publish diverse opinions in the Asian-American community – even its “disturbing warts.” While Asian Week now says that its editorial process is “under review,” how did they even hire someone like Eng in the first place? As the editors of SFist have proven, an online search of Kenneth Eng provides plenty of evidence that he is at worst a racist – or at best extremely angry and unstable. In an age of Google searches, the editors of Asian Week had simply no excuse to not know whom they were dealing with. Eng was a symptom of a larger problem, and more questions need to be answered before the paper regains its reputation in the community. |