A suggested better response to McKenna staffer’s tweets

This post is by Madeline Moy, a recent graduate of the UW Department of Communication’s digital media Master’s program.

SEATTLE — While scanning Facebook the other night, I took special notice of a post celebrating the departure of Kathlyn Ehl from the campaign staff of Washington state gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna.

The controversial tweets by Ehl have since been deleted.

These are screen captures of Kathlyn Ehl’s controversial tweets. Both tweets have since been deleted.

Ehl recently came under fire for authoring two offensive tweets that denigrated Asians and elderly people. The Stranger broke the story on Monday, The Seattle Times editorial board called for Ehl to be fired on Tuesday, and Ehl resigned on Wednesday.

I was especially disappointed and disgusted by Ehl’s tweet: “shut up and speak english #asians.” It unfortunately reminded me of the “Asians in the Library” rant that UCLA student Alexandra Wallace posted on YouTube last year.

I am a second-generation Filipino American who was born and raised in Washington state. It hurts when I’m reminded that many of my fellow Americans will always view me as a foreigner. It also makes me angry to know that recent and not-so-recent Asian immigrants have to deal with this kind of bigotry and ignorance.

As a communications professional, I find it appalling that Ehl apparently thought nothing of posting such a comment on Twitter, an international public platform.

However, while many of my friends—especially those who are Asian American like me—cheered and applauded when they heard that Ehl resigned, to me it felt like a hollow victory.

So we publicly shamed and cowed a junior staffer of the McKenna campaign. So what? Is this something that we really want to celebrate?

I don’t see how the Ehl Twitter controversy advanced the conversation about racism in America or raised awareness about the needs of people who are elderly and disabled.

Maybe Ehl truly is—as many suggest—a racist, ageist idiot. She is also young, a 2012 graduate of the University of Washington, in fact. While I don’t think her tweets are simply a youthful indiscretion as many are claiming, she has ample time to change her heart and mind.

Ehl quit the McKenna campaign on July 18, which also happens to be the birthday of South African statesman Nelson Mandela.

Mandela is renowned for his incredible commitment to forgiveness and reconciliation. He said, “You will achieve more in this world through acts of mercy than you will through acts of retribution.”

Social media makes it easy to shame and censure without suggesting solutions. How can we use it to promote forgiveness, empowerment and positive response? Maybe we could reclaim the #asians hashtag that Ehl used, organize a flash mob of people talking in multiple Asian languages to underscore the importance of speaking up, or have bloggers take a walk with older adults and talk about mobility issues.

It’s not enough to point out racism and ageism. You have to do something about it and you have to actually deal with the people who are being racist and ageist.

Intolerance won’t end unless people who commit hateful acts stop doing them, not because of fear of public reprisal, but because they know and believe that these actions are hurtful and wrong.

This post was produced in partnership with Flip the Media.