公司的“回复”,里面那句““We mentioned bus riders would not encounter Chinese exchange student on our buses"简直恶心到爆炸…
学校的公告,点赞。
我很爱我的母校University of Illinois,但同时也承认它近来面临的一系列政治和资金问题,而缺少资金的结果就是招入了大量的国际学生,但是单从这一条来看并没有什么不好。我的男朋友的学校国际学生比例高达66%,也并没有妨碍他们学校在所有世界排名里面都在前十。不过资金问题带来的其他问题,包括文科教授因为没有funding而大量离校,项目缩减,课程减少等等是真实存在的。
上周我在见一个已经离校的教授的时候,她忧心忡忡的与我说,Krannert Art Museum已经很久没有亚洲的展览了,而他们的决定是换上非洲和拉美这些更加“政治正确”的展览。在课程设置上,我们学校的艺术学院也已经两年没有能够教亚洲艺术的教授,他们曾经有机会招聘一个,但是选择了非洲和拉美方向的教授。“他们根本不在意学校里大量的亚洲学生群体,不是吗?”我上周就这两个问题写信给了Fine Arts Department的Dean,但是至今没有收到回信。这里是他们的邮箱,如果你也想试试:kham@illinois.edu,pmortens@illinois.edu。
如果说对于“不重视”还是能够说“这是政治环境下的选择结果,大家都有无奈的地方”,那么今天Illini Shuttle做的这件事情也是足够他们的联邦法院上面给大家解释一下了。
总结一下就是,他们家的宣传里面写了“在我们的大巴上,你不会感到你在中国。”而他们的后续“道歉信”,我觉得叫做挑衅书更恰当一些,表达了他们对于UIUC招了大量中国学生的不满,而其中“slap in the face”,"half the planet”等词更是极其的挑衅。
我是没有想到,在Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United Statesd等案子发生后的五十多年后的今天,还会有公司如此明目张胆的违反Civil Rights Act of 1964 Title II, 我就好奇他们是看着这个法条违反的吗?
Outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion or national origin in hotels, motels, restaurants, theaters, and all other public accommodations engaged in interstate commerce; exempted private clubs without defining the term "private".
对于“宪法和民权法案是否保护非公民权利”,年初Trump对于移民入境的行政法案那场争辩中各地法官已经给了我们很明确的答案:保护。
这里简单介绍一下Heart of Atlanta Motel这个案子。这个旅馆坐落在乔治亚的亚特兰大城,旅馆主人明确表示拒绝黑人入住。当被起诉的时候他辩解说,联邦法院不能用Civil Rights Act来判这个案子,因为这个Act违反了他行使第一修正案言论自由权利来选择顾客,并强制要求他来给黑人顾客提供服务。而法院的回答则是,提供酒店住房给旅客是影响“interstate commerce(跨州商业贸易)”的一个部分,所以民权法案完全有管辖权,可以用来约束这种行为。(此处宪法概念有点复杂,就不展开来讲了。)
而在Illini Shuttle这种行为背后,我完全可以预料到他们用“第一修正案言论自由”来为自己辩护,但是在今年的美国高院判决Craig案以后(我粗浅的理解就是equal protection高于第一修正案,同性恋权利高于宗教信仰权利。虽然我不认同这个判决)。如果法院认为national origin(比同性恋权利更收平权保护)在此处不被保护的话,我只能说他们逻辑不自洽了。
以上就是就这个问题法律方面我能联想到的东西了,对于细节我还没有仔细思考,欢迎讨论。所以乱七八糟的说了那么多,我们能做什么呢?我看到很多分享投诉的链接,比如,
1. 找学校投诉
http:// diversity.illinois.edu
tolerance@illinois.edu
还可以联系Illini Media的人,至少写一个新闻让大家都知道这个事。
2. 找相关部门投诉
Department of Transportation
3. 给州议员打电话
(欢迎在留言区更新其他觉得有用的方式)
在法律方面,我建议大家可以联系UIUC法学院的Federal Civil Rights Clinic(无论是在上这个clinic的学生或者是负责的教授),问问他们愿不愿意来考虑就这个情况提起诉讼。或者询问法律方面应该做什么。同时也可以找UIUC的legal service提交一下表格看看愿不愿意至少代表中国学生和Illini Shuttle法务做交涉。
总之这件事情真的是很气,希望不要最后以他们假惺惺的再发个“道歉信”结束。
本文开放转载,无需署名
另外转一篇Xuanie学姐写的英文版
Suburban Express, a shuttle bus service that serves the University of Illinois community recently sent out a “Welcome to December!” email to its customers with Christmas Break Bus Schedules and a list of bullet pointed details attached, including the following:
“Passengers like you. You won’t feel like you’re in China when you’re on our buses.”
Whether this was intended to be a selling point that Suburban Express will make you feel like you are in America, surrounded by Americans (not to get into the finer points of Suburban Express’s idea of who would belong to the American race) when you are on their buses (because they don’t serve Chinese international students?); or this was intended to be a threat against Chinese international students that riding Suburban Express would be an experience that will constantly remind them that they are unwelcomed in someone else’s country, this line is offensive and threatening. I can understand why this upsets the Chinese student community at the university.
Suburban Express responded with the one page half-assed apology that they “made the remark based on the fact that [their] competitor mostly handles Chinese international students”, this remark was not intended to be an offensive one, and seemed bemused that the remark was interpreted as “a slap in the face of all non-Caucasians.” Well, that was the supposedly “apologetic” part of the “apology”, the rest of the page was filled with the innocent victimized rant that U of I, a state school “funded by taxpayers” and “built on land granted by the people of the State of Illinois”, due to bad management, now has to “sell [...] to the highest foreign bidder”.
I do not wish to get into the debate whether the university made the right strategic decision to admit more international students, or whether nearly 20% of U of I students are natives Chinese was a good phenomenon. I am just deeply offended by the “apology” offered by Suburban.
I have seen apologies staged as a damage-control performance, a demand for forgiveness disguised as an apology, and very rarely, an acknowledgement of the harm done to the harmed party. The Suburban Express’s apology was none of the above: it was a declaration that it has done nothing wrong, the fault was all with the university that has made the campus un-American. I applaud Suburban Express’s courage for defending the American-ness of the university (or should I say, the whiteness?), and their audacity to indicate that they are willing to exclude customers based on their national origin so that “passengers like you” could enjoy an authentic American experience to ride a shuttle bus—although it might just be a little bit more American to hitchhike a ride, it is the Midwest, after all.
Suburban Express ended its apology with a snarky remark that “[i]n any event, [they] did not intend to offend half the planet.”
Well, only 18.3% of the world population are Chinese per Wikipedia. If Suburban Express wished to apologize, they should have done it properly; if it did not intend to and wished to be sarcastic and provoking, get the facts straight.