The irony is as rich as a slab of mochi cake fit only for "a white person who has no clue what mochi is,"
June Chu, the Yale dean who specialized in lecturing her fellow academics on the need to be "culturally competent" in dealing with students from "diverse backgrounds" is now, at least temporarily, out of a job.
Because it seems that despite Chu's "culturally competent" concern for ethnic diversity, there was one group that she just couldn't bring herself to feel "culturally competent" toward: the white working-class folks (Irish and Italians mostly) who make up 43 percent of the "townie" population of New Haven, Conn., where Yale is located. (The city also has large black and Latino populations.)
It seems that Chu had a side occupation besides being dean of Yale's Pierson College: food critic. Or actually, it would seem, trasher of the white working class in the name of food criticism (see her take on mochi cake above). Indeed, she made an explicit reference to "white trash" in one of her reviews for Yelp, where she was a frequent contributor.
As 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.
At first Chu, apologizing profusely, maintained that only two of her Yelp comments had been out of line. But the Yalie Daily actually found scads of them and provided a link to screenshots of entries in Chu's since-deleted account.:
In a 2015 review of Entertainment Cinemas in nearby Seymour, Chu criticized “barely educated morons trying to manage snack orders for the obese” and lamented that she had to “remain in line with all the other idiots.”
“Everyone raves about the views but seriously — it’s New Haven,” Chu wrote in a review of the restaurant John Davenport’s. “Come on. There is no view.”
Chu really didn't like New Haven much.
As the New York Post reported:
“To put it quite simply: If you are white trash, this is the perfect night out for you!” Chu wrote in one review of a Japanese restaurant. “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. Over salted and greasy food. Side note: employees are Chinese, not Japanese.”
Other reviews by Chu, who identified herself as a Chinese-American on the website, focused on her prowess to evaluate a Japanese rice cake as an authentic critic.
“Remember: I am Asian,” Chu wrote. “I know mochi. These are not good and overpriced. They are ice cream mochi which are small in size and easily become freezer burned if not stored well … I guess if you were a white person who has no clue what mochi is, this would be fine for you.”
Meanwhile Chu was writing high-minded essays about the importance of cultural sensitivity, such as this one, for Inside Higher Education:
If we continually advise without understanding diverse students’ practical concerns, while appreciating their distinct cultural value systems, we inadvertently project the idea that independence is the norm and interdependence is an erroneous way of thinking,
Yale admnistrators at first stood behind Chu, but finally, Fox News reports
On Thursday, Pierson College Head Stephen Davis, who initially stuck by the dean, said Chu had been placed on leave after the college discovered numerous “reprehensible posts” that were part of a widespread pattern. He said her posts made him question her ability to lead the college.
There's a lesson to be learned here: It's what our intellectual elites actually think about the ordinary working-class people about for whom they express such sympathy and solicitude.