Mountains or molehills

Whether you're Democrat or Republican, liberal or informed, I think we can all agree on one thing: the world has more than enough problems.

So I don't understand why some students here at Duke have taken it upon themselves to create problems where none exist. I am, of course referring to the Asian Students Association's reaction to Monday, Monday's joke about Asians. For those of you with better things to do than follow petty squabbles, here's the rundown:

Monday, Monday, an anonymous humor column, wrote a piece about engineers being unfit romantic matches for Trinity girls. At one point, the column claimed that all engineers are "emotionally unavailable, boring, taken or Asian." The Chronicle soon printed three letters to the editor expressing outrage at the "casual racism" of the remark, and the Center for Race Relations organized a meeting to discuss the comment.

Now, I had laughed at the original column-doubly so because I was a Trinity student in a room full of engineers-but I felt I had better get a second opinion. In true scientific fashion, I took a survey of all the male Asian engineers who I happened to run into.

Absolutely none of them expressed any offense at the column, and one student even said, "That made my day!"

For further evidence I turned to that encyclopedia for all things college: facebook.com.

I went to the "groups" directory and typed in "Asian."

The first group listed was the ASA-that is, the "Asian Segregation Association."

Now, as an economic conservative I have some reservations about whether SAS' plan is actually the best policy in the long run, but for this argument that's really beside the point. The SAS looked at the world and found a real problem. They worked hard, formed a plan and undertook the gargantuan task of effecting change at an institution as large and complex as Duke.

Sincerity of purpose and hard work are values that even Adam Smith, F. A. Hayek, myself and any other free market capitalist you care to name can appreciate.

If the ASA's cause had any sort of similar merit, I would be singing its praises just as loudly, but the fact is that it does not. The group doesn't even win on the old argument "if you replaced Asian with [list of ethnic/religious groups], then everyone would be outraged."

This is, of course, nonsense. I'm white, but I can laugh at Dave Chapelle. I'm a Lutheran, but I don't write angry letters to Garrison Keillor.

I could list pages and pages of comedians who have made racially tinged jokes the center of their routines and gone on to great popularity. Why aren't the subjects of these humorists in constant states of outrage?

Because they don't choose to be. Because they haven't made the decision to treat a joke as a serious statement and set up a straw man to knock down in a fit of self-righteousness.

Surely there are enough problems in the world without making anymore to deal with.

Surely there are issues facing Asia and Asians in America that the ASA could take a real stand on.

I'm afraid empty claims of racism just don't impress me in a town where crosses were burned only last year.

The ASA should put off complaining until it has something real to complain about.

Oliver Sherouse is a Trinity freshman. His column runs every other Friday.