Photo via Wikimedia Creative Commons by David Adam Kess
An effort by Harvard to support its Asian American students is backfiring on the Ivy League institution, reports We Are Resonate.
The university produced a page of anti-Asian racism resources and on it wrote “you may wish you weren’t Asian.”
The phrasing received immediate backlash and has since been removed.
Harvard student Matteo Wong called out the clumsy effort by Harvard to make Asian American students feel better about themselves.
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“WHAT? Please tell me who wrote “you may wish that you weren’t Asian” on the mental health resources page, why they thought it would be helpful, and how telling me this is supposed to help me feel any sort of racial “pride.” at that, pride in what, exactly,” he tweeted.
According to the International Business Times, Harvard has since apologized.
“We are deeply sorry that some recently-posted content on our website not only fell short of that mission, but caused more stress in our community. We had intended to post helpful resources for our Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander communities that we know are hurting in light of recent events around us, but what we ultimately posted included some insensitive and inappropriate content that we have now removed,” said Giang T. Nguyen, MD, Executive Director, Harvard University Health Services..
“We plan to engage more closely with members across our community to ensure that we can serve as a trusted, reliable resource for everyone at Harvard, and will work diligently to ensure that this never happens again.”
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