Fury over 'Why I Hate Blacks' column

Asian-American leaders are condemning a column titled "Why I Hate Blacks," which was published in a weekly newspaper that calls itself The Voice of Asian America.

In the column, which appeared in the February 23 edition of San Francisco-based AsianWeek, contributor Kenneth Eng lists reasons why he supports discrimination against blacks.

AsianWeek, with a circulation of 48,505, issued a statement yesterday apologising for "any harm or hurt this has caused the African American community."

Leaders at the Asian American Justice Centre, Chinese for Affirmative Action, Coalition for Asian Pacific Americans and other groups are circulating a petition denouncing the column as "irresponsible journalism, blatantly racist, replete with stereotypes, and deeply hurtful to African Americans."

"It certainly does not speak for the vast majority of Asian Americans," Stewart Kwoh, who heads the Asian Pacific American Legal Centre in Los Angeles, said today.

"This kind of inflammatory (column) really can hurt and damage relations with the broader African-American community."

The petition calls on AsianWeek to cut ties with Eng, issue an apology, print an editorial refuting the column, and fire or demote the editors who published it.

"Something like this should never have been printed," said Vincent Eng, deputy director of the Asian American Justice Centre in Washington, who is not related to the columnist.

"Deliberate action needs to be taken to make sure this type of hate speech doesn't continue."

AsianWeek plans to hold a news conference today with leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in San Francisco to discuss how the Asian and black communities "can be different and yet get along and work together," said Ted Fang, the paper's editor-at-large.

"The newspaper is sorry that this got published, and I am personally sorry that this got published," said Fang.

"The views in that opinion piece do not in any way reflect the views of AsianWeek."

AsianWeek plans to review its policies to "understand how this happened and make sure it doesn't happen again," Fang said, calling the decision to publish Eng's piece a "mistake."

Fang's family publishes the weekly, along with a local newspaper called the Independent, and owned the San Francisco Examiner between 2000 and 2004.

The column was the third written by Kenneth Eng, who has described himself as an "Asian Supremacist." His two previous columns were titled "Proof That Whites Inherently Hate Us" and "Why I Hate Asians."

Eng is in his early 20s and a graduate of New York University, according to a biography on a website promoting his science fiction writing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~