boston progress radio

So, this is both a happy, way-to-go! kind of post and also, a what’s-wrong-with-this-country kind of post. First, the good news. I’m sure you’ve all read the news that Dr. Jim Yong Kim, one of the co-founders of Partners In Health, has been selected as Dartmouth College’s new President. Here’s the press announcement from Dartmouth College. Dartmouth has video on their website. What’s cool about this is that he will be the first Asian American president of any Ivy League college. It is about time, but it isn’t surprising. Sometimes those stuffy old Ivy League colleges just don’t get it. Do you know Harvard still doesn’t have an Asian American Studies program?

Now, Dr. Kim isn’t as famous or flamboyant as his partner, Dr. Paul Farmer, but Dr. Jim Kim transcends the word awesome. His accomplishments have seriously impacted the entire world. And in my mind, I believe that he is a true radical. From PBS’ show Rx for Survival’s profile of Dr. Kim, we see that:

Trained as a physician and an anthropologist, Jim Kim has spent his career looking not only for the reasons why people are ill, but for the reason behind the reasons. Frequently the answer he comes up with is poverty. In Dying for Growth: Global Inequality and the Health of the Poor, published in 2000, Kim, along with co-editors Joyce V. Millen, Alec Irwin, and John Gershman, examines the socioeconomic forces that affect the health outcomes for poor people around the world.

In the United States, medicine has come to rely a whole lot on technology. In fact, that’s part of my day job. But maybe making people healthier is a whole lot less about technology and a whole lot more about social and economic factors. Isn’t it a wonder that the United States with the most advanced medical technology in the world has the most people affected with obesity? Anyhow, I’ll get off my podium. Let’s just say that I love Dr. Kim.

So now for the bad news. I can’t even write it down here. But let’s just say that some ignorant idiots sent out a racist e-mail to the Dartmouth community. You can read about it at the IvyGate blog, a blog serving students of the Ivy League. I thought these students at Dartmouth were educated. I thought that this kind of disrespect would stop happening. I mean, why does this kind of stuff keep happening? Is this a case of ignorance? I don’t think so. So, I don’t have to be compassionate here. Yes, the folks who did this are sorry for sending out this e-mail. Yes, the folks who did this say that they will apologize personally to Dr. Kim. But you know what, I’m pissed off because that’s just not enough. Because what will happen is that Asian Americans will take the high road. Dr. Kim will accept their apology. And all of this will be forgotten until the next time this happens.

Can we just take the low road for once? You know, like maybe we can strip them naked, tar and feather them and tie them to some posts in a prominent open field at Dartmouth and leave them there. They’ll probably die there. So, that’s probably not a good idea. I guess what I’d like to see is some real consequences for their behavior. I don’t know what would be appropriate, but man, let’s stop this racism. Let’s just stop.

Last 5 posts by eugene

• Asian American Raffi: Where are you? - January 13th, 2010
• Recap: East Meets Words, Jan 2010 - January 12th, 2010
• East Meets Words Featuring Fatimah Asghar and Jamilla Woods - November 11th, 2009
• Hip-Hop Values from Oliver Wang - October 29th, 2009
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Tags: News.