June Chu is the dean of a Yale University residential college called Pierson. Her official Yale biography says that throughout a career in higher education Ms. Chu “has sought to help students not only succeed academically but to support their holistic academic experience and multifaceted identities.” However, there seem to be some identities that Ms. Chu does not support. On Saturday the Yale Daily News reported:
Over the last year, Pierson College Dean June Chu published controversial reviews of local businesses on her personal Yelp account, on one occasion referring to clientele of a restaurant as “white trash” and “low class folks,” and on another praising a movie theater for its lack of “sketchy crowds” despite being located in New Haven.
On paper, Ms. Chu might appear to be among the most culturally sensitive people on the planet. She holds a Ph.D. in social psychology and previously directed the Pan Asian American Community House at the University of Pennsylvania. And according to Yale she’s not just deeply concerned about particular groups of students. Her bio reports that she’s also an “animal loving pescatarian.”
Fish have little standing to complain about their treatment at the hands of Dean Chu, but plenty of people do. The Yale Daily News was able to save screen shots of a number of Ms. Chu’s reviews of businesses near the school’s Connecticut campus, including her thoughts on a Japanese restaurant:
To put it quite simply: if you are white trash, this is the perfect night out for you! This establishment is definitely not authentic by any stretch of any imagination and perfect for those low class folks who believe this is a real night out.
The social psychologist wrote in her review of another purveyor of Japanese fare: “I guess if you were a white person who has no clue what mochi is, this would be fine for you.”
The Yale dean wrote of one local cinema, “I loved the small theater feel without sketchy crowds (despite it being in new haven) and the seats were roomy and comfortable.”
Another theater was staffed by “barely educated morons,” wrote Ms. Chu, who had a crude reference in another post and separately whined about the desk attendant at a local gym. She added that “seriously I don’t care if you would ‘lose your job’ (I am sure McDonalds would hire you).”
Dean Chu appears to be a classic progressive elitist, contemptuous of the deplorables—especially the white ones—who lack her academic credentials and income. This column tends to think that people should try to be forgiving when it comes to insensitive comments. Still, the double standard on the Yale campus is striking.
This is the same campus where within the last two years administrators stepped down from their posts in a residential college after they sparked student protests simply by urging people to be tolerant of Halloween costumes. Here we have a dean dismissing a large number of individual human beings as “white trash.”
The official response appears to be an emailed apology to students from Dean Chu and another email from the head of Pierson College, Stephen Davis, pronouncing:
I know her apology to you is genuine. CONTINUE AT SITE
