Debra Saunders on our side?

Although ignoring the efforts of the Asian American coalition that brought this matter to light, the Chronicle’s Debra Saunders echos most of our points.

She says: “…the Special City has a way of making excuses for bigotry and intolerance — when they percolate from the left or ethnic groups.” Uh. That didn’t seem to happen here.

More from her Feb. 28 column:

I still want to know: Did editors think that running a racist column would be cutting edge? That an Asian Ann Coulter wannabe would create buzz? That they could get away with running racist copy because it is a publication serving an Asian-American audience?

…
That’s high-minded language from a paper that published a column that listed among “reasons we should discriminate against blacks” the assertion that blacks are “weak-willed” and “the only race that has been enslaved for 300 years.”

No AsianWeek manager can claim surprise at the column. Eng is a self-described “Asian supremacist,” who wrote a “Why I hate Asians” column in January. In November he wrote, “White people hate us and will always hate us.” Unlike the anti-black column, those columns sparked no Chronicle story and no City Hall resolution against AsianWeek.

She also writes: “Presumably AsianWeek management will provide an explanation at a Friday town meeting billed as an open discussion on ‘the media’s role and responsibility in fostering dialogue that leads to a greater understanding between Asian and African American communities.’

But we’ve just learned from New America Media, one of the presenters of Friday’s forum that it is not a town meeting, but a forum for the ethnic media.