Matthew De Starkey, an instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, is being slammed on Twitter for a photo he posted of himself supposedly imitating Asian men, We are Resonate reports.
In the photo, De Starkey is squinting his eyes, pressing his hands together, and wearing a wooden bowl as a hat. He captioned the photo, “When your crush says she only dates Asians.”
Pls RT: A racist instructor at a public university engaged in blatant racism against Asians last week. @UWWhitewater has deleted tweets & FB posts by concerned citizens, effectively engaging in censorship & cover-up. @ACLU @ACLUWisconsin #MondayMotivationhttps://t.co/zhZB7QzeLy
— Kas Lee | 李蕙儀 (@kasefiles) July 16, 2018
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When members of the Asian community began to criticize his tweet, De Starkey responded with a tweet of his middle finger captioning this post, “Short ass finger.” According to a blog post from a blog called ProAsian that discussed the racist tweet, De Starkey’s response was a reference to the “tired stereotype that Asian men are less endowed.”
De Starkey has since deleted the post and changed his Twitter handle. What remains are screenshots of his tweets taken by other Twitter users.
De Starkey reportedly serves as an instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. According to his LinkedIn account, he is both a student and a supplemental instructor at the university.
Many people are calling on the university to address De Starkey’s tweets. One Twitter user has sent a complaint about De Starkey to the university. The University responded by thanking him and informing him that the complaint had been forwarded to the Chief Human Resources Officer.
July 15th sent a complaint to @UWWhitewater about a racist instructor named Matthew De Starkey and received a response on 16th July saying they will look into this. pic.twitter.com/Y57AxTyEE4
— Ren 仁 (@axegang_123) July 16, 2018
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As of now, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater has not taken any administrative action, but it has taken to Twitter to let those criticizing De Starkey that it has a zero-tolerance policy towards discrimination and bias.
The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater has a zero-tolerance attitude toward any form of discrimination and/or bias, and is looking into this situation. UW-Whitewater is committed to providing an environment that is free of discrimination and bias.
— UW-Whitewater (@UWWhitewater) July 17, 2018
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RE: University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Instructor Slammed for Racist Photo: Pretty lame response on the part of UW-Whitewater. Wisconsin used to be a blue state with ethics. A sign of the times.
RE: University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Instructor Slammed for Racist Photo: In this day and age, it’s more pathetic of the Asian American community for not taking a stronger stand over this.
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Instructor slammed for Racist Photo: As an Asian American I have no issue with his social media post as it’s meant to be humorous. Racism tends to be subtle. It’s extremely more offensive to call a white person a “cracker” than to say ‘negro’ as its an actual word in another language for the color ‘black’.
“A sign of the times.”
” it’s more pathetic of the Asian American community for not taking a stronger stand over this.”
You guys are being overdramatic. It’s even worse that Joe is attacking the whole Asian American community for not being overly sensitive and butthurt. We don’t give a damn what other people think of us as long as they’re not directly flingnig insults in our faces. People have a right to free speech. It’s funny how celebs and comedians can get away with anything. We’re not bothered by such mediocre humor/jokes because it’s not relevant to us. I find his post humorous and entertaining, and you need to stop being a sensitive snowflake.
Keep your SJW crap down a few pegs.