Higher Ed's Obsession of the Week: Chancellor Goes Full Racist
Thomas L. Keon, Chancellor of Purdue University Northwest, has issued a formal (read: typical) apology for racist remarks at the school's December commencement ceremony. Will it be enough?
This weekly feature is inspired by Lyz Lenz’s wonderful newsletter Men Yell at Me, which is smart and so well-written and I just can’t recommend it enough; in particular this feature is an homage to Lenz’s “Dingus of the Week.”
“When people show you who they are, believe them.” —Maya Angelou
I am going to try to write the next sentence as clearly and objectively as I possibly can.
On December 10, during commencement exercises, Purdue University Northwest Chancellor Thomas L. Keon took the podium and uttered gibberish that he then referred to as an “Asian version of…” He trailed off without making a complete statement.
If you haven’t yet heard of this, and you’re confused—and I don’t blame you one bit if you are—here’s the video:
As you can see, “cringeworthy” doesn’t even begin to describe it. It may well go down as the lamest, most cringeworthy attempt at humor in the history of northwest Indiana.
The apology
In short order, Keon offered what amounts to the typical, corporate-style apology statement, indicating that he “made a comment that was offensive and insensitive” and apologizing for his “unplanned, off-the-cuff response to another speaker.”
You have to figure that Keon’s statement had a lot of well-remunerated, upper echelon admin types eyeballing it before he posted it to Twitter on December 14. With that in mind, consider the carefully crafted language:
The comment was offensive and insensitive. This is the apology part. I said something that caused offense; these things I said were insensitive.
The remarks were an unplanned, off-the-cuff response to another speaker. Here comes the distancing move, which is quite typical in high-level administrative apologia. Note that the intent here is to show that the remarks were unplanned, not premeditated in any way, and actually said in response to another speaker. In any case, there is a sizable gulf separating the remarks, which were wrong, from the Keon. (The commencement speaker had apparently talked about using made-up languages.)
The words have caused confusion, pain, and anger. The words have the agency in this active voice sentence, not the man himself speaking those words (or non-words, as in this case).
The intent here is pretty obvious: to offer a sincere-sounding apology that distances Keon from any charges of outright racism and allow things to cool down over the holiday break before things resume in January. At least that’s the hope on the part of the Purdue University Northwest Board of Trustees, who finally issued a formal reprimand to Keon on December 22. (Nearly two weeks after the incident, it should be noted.)
Since the commencement on December 10, Keon’s…remarks have been widely condemned as a racist and mocking caricature of people in the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. Gay Q. Yuen, board chair of Friends of the Chinese American Museum in Los Angeles, published a statement on December 20 in which she decried Keon’s accented mockery as exhibiting “subtle and underlying racism.” Yuen continued,
The apology he gave, that it was “offensive and insensitive,” does little to diminish over a century of anti-Asian bashing and violence that Asian Americans have faced in the United States and throughout the world. Instead of educating and modeling what global and educated citizenship can look like, he demonstrated that, at a moment when levity was merited, he resorted to racist caricatures.
As a learned man, Chancellor Keon demonstrated that even in the white halls of higher education, the persistence of anti-Asian sentiment is more than physical violence and outright overtures of racism, they are wrapped around “excusable” moments of jocularity. Much like blackface and yellowface, the ability to use humor as a bludgeoning tool, veiled by jokes and excused by “being funny,” illustrates why racism is still so persistent in America. His comments illustrate why Asian Americans are continually perceived as outsiders in their own country.
Dr. Maya Angelou once said, “When people show you who they are, believe them.” Dr. Thomas L. Keon has shown us the face of America, even in higher education. We must believe him. We must believe that America still has a long way to go in teaching our young people what equity should look like and sound like.
Chancellor L. Keon’s mockery merits more than just condemnation, it is a call to action for Purdue to establish ongoing education programs and training for their staff, faculty and management. The most educated must still learn and be accountable in facing their own racism, white supremacy, and the institutions that continue to perpetuate them.
Chancellor Keon would do well to face those who were affected by his racists remarks by visiting and knowing the very communities he mocked. The Chinese American Museum of Los Angeles is at the nexus of these conversations. The museum is situated in the birthplace of Los Angeles and where the Chinese Massacre of 1871 took place. The museum is dedicated to exposing historic racism and combating discrimination, xenophobia, and intolerance facing us today. We are committed to unifying and uplifting the Black, Brown, Indigenous, LGBTQIA+, and Asian American communities of Los Angeles through our educational programs and artistic exhibitions.
On December 15, the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum also issued a statement.
The aftermath…so far
Keon’s own colleagues have turned on him. The faculty senate at Purdue University Northwest has requested Keon’s resignation and a Change.org petition has garnered over 5,000 signatures. But it’s highly unlikely that this will go any further, at least in the minds of the Board of Trustees, and that’s because it’s a huge pain the ass to go through the process of hiring a Chancellor. If the offending action doesn’t outweigh the costs (time, energy, public nuisance, etc.) of staging the ridiculously elaborate process of hiring a new chief academic officer, then the BoT isn’t going to do it.
In fact, BoT chair Mike Berghoff essentially said as much in the formal reprimand issued on December 22, writing at the close of the brief statement that
Although in the Trustees' estimation, this offensive remark does not reflect a pattern of behavior or a system of beliefs held by Dr. Keon, the Board has made clear to him that a repeat incident of a similar nature would provide grounds for further Board action, including possible dismissal.
The university does not intend to comment further on this personnel matter.
All wrapped up just in time for Christmas.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.