I’ve written before about the recent trend on college campuses in which Republicans/conservatives are increasingly asserting their rights and opinions, in a growing effort to counter what is generally perceived to be an overwhelmingly liberal university environment. Well, as the Boston Globe reports, this new wave of “political correctness” may have already led to its own backlash, as “liberal” students and professors on campus are increasingly the targets of hostility and discrimination:

Alan Temes, an assistant professor of health and physical education at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, was getting good reviews on the job until his politics became an issue. Temes, who opposes the war in Iraq, began posting updates of the body count of US soldiers and Iraqi civilians on a bulletin board near his office. . . . Later, he was denied tenure, despite apparently meeting the qualifications for it.

This is one of several recent incidents in which colleges penalized faculty and students for expressing antiwar views. In September at George Mason University in Virginia, a student and Air Force veteran, Tariq Khan, stood near a military recruiters’ table on campus with a ‘’Recruiters lie” sign taped to his chest and handed out leaflets.

Another student assaulted him and took away his sign; the campus police then arrested Khan for violating a university policy that bans distribution of leaflets without prior approval from administrators. Charges were eventually dropped after Khan’s case was taken up by the American Civil Liberties Union and by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

FIRE is a nonpartisan organization that champions free expression on college campuses. When the organization was launched in 1998, its main focus was ‘’political correctness” from the left -- attempts to curtail speech regarded as racist, sexist, or otherwise injurious to diversity. Such censorship still endures. But alongside it, FIRE is seeing more cases in which speech is suppressed by political correctness on the right.

Of course, let’s not forget about the University of Kansas Religious Studies professor who planned to teach a course on intelligent design but had to back out after he posted derogatory comments about the merits of the “theory.” Allegedly, he was later physically attacked by two men because of his anti-religious comments, forced to step down as department chair, and is now threatening a lawsuit and saying that he was forced out by university officials.

Ahh, more skirmishes in the growing Culture Wars. This conflict between liberal and conservative beliefs isn’t dying down anytime soon -- if anything, it’s getting worse, with college campuses increasingly being one of the fiercest battlefields. Unfortunately, many careers and lives are likely to get ruined in this war as our nation gradually becomes more and more divided.

What was that about being “a uniter, not a divider?”

Many of you have probably heard about Chinese American director Ang Lee’s latest movie Brokeback Mountain, a story about two cowboy ranch hands who have a gay love affair. In a recent issue of AsianWeek Magazine, Ang Lee discusses his thoughts on what Asians, gays, and cowboys share:

Question: Cowboys are not known for openly expressing their emotions. Asians share a similar stereotype. Do you see any parallels between Asians and cowboys in how they deal with taboo sexual subjects such as homosexuality?

Ang Lee: I see the themes of repression in Brokeback Mountain as being universal regardless of culture. However, it is true that Eastern culture and the nature of cowboys share a certain indirectness, quiet nature, and use of body language to communicate that are quite similar. There are similarities in the art of the two cultures as well –– they both emphasize feelings of sadness, melancholy, and expansive space through various media.

The difference is that Western culture is more macho, whereas Eastern culture is –– more lunar and feminine in nature. Thus, when it comes to attitudes about homosexuality, my personal theory is that Eastern culture is more relaxed than in the West. This stems from a difference in why a culture perceives homosexuality to be wrong –– in Western culture, it stems from religion, and you are condemned if you are gay.

Eastern culture seems more, flexible –– and being gay is more of a social issue than a religious one; there is no deity to offend.

Whether or not you’re a fan of Ang Lee’s movies, you’ve got to admire him for achieving success on his own terms and not being afraid to do what he wants, whether it relates to portrayals of Asians or gay cowboys. Keep up the good work, Ang.

As you may have heard and as many news organizations such as CBS News have reported, South Korea medical scientist Hwang Woo-suk has recently resigned from his university position after it was revealed that his research, which was initially touted as a breakthrough success in the area of stem cell research, was mostly if not entirely fabricated:

In a May paper published in the journal Science, Hwang claimed to have created 11 stem-cell lines matched to patients in an achievement that raised hopes of creating tailored therapies for hard-to-treat diseases. But one of his former collaborators last week said nine of the 11 cell lines were faked, prompting reviews by the journal and an expert panel at Seoul National University, where Hwang works as a professor. . . .

The university panel of investigators said Hwang’s fabrication was a deliberate deception that has undermined the credibility of science. The university’s announcement of results so far in its investigation into Hwang’s work were the first confirmation of allegations that have cast a shadow over all of his purported breakthroughs in cloning and stem-cell technology. . . .

The South Korean government, which had strongly supported Hwang and designated him the country’s first “top scientist,” said Friday it was “miserable” over the reported results of the investigation and will start its own probe over ethics breaches.

As an academic myself, of course I strongly condemn his dishonesty as an affront to the rest of us who are doing legitimate academic research. But just as important, as an Asian American, I also condemn his dishonesty for several reasons. First, his actions are likely to damage the scientific work of other Asian and Asian American researchers, who unfortunately, will be seen as potentially suspicious, merely by association as a fellow Asian.

In other words, just as virtually all Chinese Americans -- and by implication all Asian Americans -- were seen as potential spies several years ago due to the alleged actions of a few (later to be acquitted of virtually all charges), the same scenario is likely to be repeated here as the honesty and integrity of Asian and Asian American scientists may get called into questions.

Unfortunately, I see Hwang’s actions as another unfortunate example of the unending drive for status and material forms of “success” and recognition that is all too common among Asians and Asian Americans. In many ways, I sometimes feel that Asians and Asian Americans are frequently the most status-conscious group of people on earth. If this drive helps to inspire many of us to become legitimately successful, that’s one thing.

But in cases like this, I also see it leading some to go beyond the bounds of professionalism, integrity, and legitimacy, all in a desperate effort to try to prove that we’re just as good or even better than other -- especially other races of people. I hope we all learn from this unfortunate episode that the drive for status and recognition has to have it limits.

MSN has an article that reports on the findings of a new study about whether a college degree from elite universities really pay off in terms of better future earnings. Basically, the team of economists who conducted the study say that in most cases, the answer is, no. However, the article notes that there is still plenty of debate about this question:

Krueger and Dale claimed that, in most cases, the higher earnings piled up by graduates of elite schools were attributable to elite individuals, not their college education. In other words, if you’re smart enough to get into Princeton, you’re smart enough to make a lot of money wherever you go to school. . . .

Plenty of experts, for instance, think Krueger and Dale are flat-out wrong. . . . Ehrenberg, along with Dominic J. Brewer and Eric Eide of the Rand Corp., published a study of this issue in 1996 and found that, “even after controlling for selection effects, there is strong evidence of significant economic return to attending an elite private institution, and some evidence that this premium has increased over time.” . . .

To address this [selection factor], Krueger and Dale looked not just at the earnings of elite-college graduates, but also at the earnings of those accepted at elite colleges who chose to attend a less-selective institution. They found that both groups of students earned about the same. To Krueger and Dale, where you applied (rather than where you matriculated) is the best predictor of future earnings.

That’s pretty interesting to consider. The article also seems to suggest that those who live in a state with a top-tier public university system (i.e., CA, WI, MI, or VA) probably get the best deal if they get their college degree from these top public schools. So I suppose I made a pretty good choice getting my BA from U.C. Irvine. Would that also apply to my Ph.D. from SUNY Albany? I’m not so sure.

But the more pressing question will probably be, where should my daughter go to college once she’s ready in about 12 years. Twelve years?!? Wow, I didn’t know it was THAT soon. Wherever she goes, I need to start saving now!

The York Times has an interesting article that described how many young Catholics are increasingly reluctant to enter the priesthood, but that Vietnamese Americans are the exception. Apparently, many young Vietnamese Americans are eager to become Roman Catholic priests:

At a time when fewer American Catholics are expressing interest in the priesthood, Vietnamese-American men are an anomaly. They are now the second-largest minority ethnic group in seminaries, only slightly behind Hispanics, who account for a far larger percentage of the general population.

While church experts and priests say that some Catholics frown upon their sons’ joining the priesthood and are even embarrassed by it in the wake of the sex abuse scandals among members of the clergy, Vietnamese Catholics continue to hold the priesthood in high regard. They say that the sex scandal marred individual clergymen but not the vocation itself. . . .

Asians and Pacific Islanders constitute about 1 percent of American Catholics, but they account for 12 percent of seminarians; a vast majority of them are of Vietnamese heritage, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. . . . That such a small group of American Catholics is able to deliver so many new priests reveals the grip tradition, family and faith still have on many Vietnamese-Americans.

As I and other scholars have noted, for many reasons, the Vietnamese American community seems to have the highest levels of ethnic and familial solidarity among all Asian American ethnic groups. This assertion is partly reflected in the fact that U.S.-raised Vietnamese Americans tend to have the lowest levels of intermarriage among major Asian groups, and in this case, the highest levels of Catholic seminary participation as well.

Although towards the end the article notes that as many U.S.-born Vietnamese become more assimilated and secularized, the numbers wanting to enter the priesthood is likely to decline, my impression is that the level of ethnic solidarity among Vietnamese is still likely to stay rather high. Vietnamese parents will still have a lot of influence over what career their children enter.

Therefore, my guess is that the future of this trend will largely lie with the parents -- if they want their sons to enter the priesthood, many will. But if they are likely many other Asian parents who want their children to become doctors or engineers, this trend will eventually dissipate. Stay tuned . . .

One of my colleagues sent around this story that is pretty disturbing: a UMass Dartmouth undergraduate student requested a copy of Mao Zedong’s life manual on communism Little Red Book through interlibrary loan and was subsequently visited by agents from the Department of Homeland Security:

The student, who was completing a research paper on Communism for Professor Pontbriand’s class on fascism and totalitarianism, filled out a form for the request, leaving his name, address, phone number and Social Security number. He was later visited at his parents’ home in New Bedford by two agents of the Department of Homeland Security, the professors said.

The professors said the student was told by the agents that the book is on a “watch list,” and that his background, which included significant time abroad, triggered them to investigate the student further.

Coupled with the recent revelations that Bush personally authorized government wiretaps and surveillance of electronic communication of Americans without a court order, we can think of this as yet another item for the “Fascism: Are We There Yet?” files.

Update: As it turns out, the student’s story was a hoax -- he just admitted that he fabricated the whole story. Nice -- real nice. Instead of being an example of our country’s gradual march toward fascism, it now stands as an example of liberals lying, making up false allegations, and basically acting like out-of-touch extremists. Real nice, whoever you are.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Best Buy is facing a potential class action lawsuit brought by several women and racial/ethnic minority employees who claim that Best Buy discriminated against them due to their gender and/or race/ethnicity:

Lawyers for the plaintiffs, including Bill Lann Lee, former U.S. assistant attorney general for civil rights, also portrayed the alleged discrimination as part of a company ethic that focuses on serving white customers. They cited a company policy requiring salespeople to target buyers matching four hypothetical models -- all white. . . .

Lawyers for the plaintiffs contended that the customer profiles were part of an environment in which white males were systematically favored for choice sales jobs, more likely to get raises and promotions and disproportionately represented in management. . . .

These discrimination suits against mega-retailers reflect, in part, the lack of union grievance procedures that would have provided another channel for employee discontent, said Harley Shaiken, a UC Berkeley professor who studies labor issues.

Best Buy has faced other discrimination claims. Last year, 60 former information systems employees at its Minnesota headquarters sued the retailer for $50 million, alleging they were laid off because of their ages. That suit is still pending.

Of course, in the U.S. (at least in theory), defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. However, in light of Best Buy’s history of employment discrimination lawsuits and the number of plaintiffs alleging gender and racial discrimination in this particular case, I am leaning toward believing these plaintiffs, rather than Best Buy.

These allegations come as somewhat as a surprise given that the Human Rights Campaign Foundation listed Best Buy as having a “100% Corporate Equality” scale rating when it comes to gay/lesbian employments rights. However, as is so often the case, actions speak louder than words.

Therefore, for the time being, I am placing Best Buy on my dreaded Boycott List, which includes other infamous businesses as Walmart, Exxon/Mobil, Coca Cola, Denny’s Restaurants, and Cracker Barrel Restaurants.

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