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Deep down in the reddit comments there is a statement from the university, which mentioned "The former supervisor's desire to clearly distance herself is unders

Deep down in the reddit comments there is a statement from the university, which mentioned "The former supervisor's desire to clearly distance herself is understandable when an accusation of racism is in the air." Some other comments also mentioned a "racist cartoon". It is also mentioned in the report: https://www.nzz.ch/english/swiss-phd-students-dismissal-spotlights-chinas-influence-ld.1638771 https://www.nzz.ch/english/swiss-phd-students-dismissal-spot... > The writer accuses Gerber of a «racist attack on the Chinese people.» He was referring to a specific tweet: a cartoon that Gerber had posted in response to another user's tweet. It depicted a comic character that had been altered and had stereotyped Chinese features, with yellow skin tone and slit eyes. This drawing circulated on social media in the spring of 2020, and was deemed racist by some users. Gerber said he only shared the cartoon because of its political message. The underlying topic had been China's stance toward Taiwan and Hong Kong. «In retrospect, I realize I didn't question the rendering of the Chinese person enough,» he said. So it is about "yellow skin tone and slit eyes". This is crazy. I don't understand how is this OK. One Twitter of cartoon , you are expelled? No chance of explanation or apologize? Even the CCP wouldn't do this. I am pretty sure a Chinese student wouldn't be expelled from the university from one single anti-CCP social media post.

spoonjim 5y ago
Of course the CCP wouldn’t, only the West is capable of the self-own that is modern Victim Culture.
- AnimalMuppet 5y ago
  cough Cultural Revolution cough Or was that sarcasm?
- frenchyatwork 5y ago
  Isn't victim culture (somewhat legitimately) a core part of the modern Chinese national spirit? See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_of_humiliation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_of_humiliation
  - spoonjim 5y ago
    Yes, but that victim status is seen as a dishonor, not something to be celebrated.
shadowgovt 5y ago
If I'm an employee at a company and post something like that on Twitter, nobody should be surprised if I suddenly find myself in the unemployment line because (perhaps unbeknownst to me) my company was right in the middle of closing a big deal with a Chinese company. Not saying it's morally correct, but those are the dynamics in play here. A university is an organization, and while the incentives and financial structure is different from, say, a manufacturing corp, the general principle of "your members will be dealt with if they burn bridges for the larger organization" applies.
- frenchyatwork 5y ago
  As long as it's not clearly hateful, universities typically allow greater freedom of expression than you normally get in a commercial organization, because the ability to criticize the zeitgeist and common sense belief is critical to the development of the arts & sciences. Of course, there is typically a tension between allowing academic freedom and pleasing whoever holds the purse strings. University administrations often have to very carefully balance between upsetting their income sources and devolving into a propaganda machine.
  - trasz 5y ago
    We’re not talking about criticizing anything; the tweet was racist.
- dmix 5y ago
  The "dynamics at play" here begins and ends with the company itself making deals with authoritarian countries. The fact the brunt of the consequences trickles down to employees or students who grew up and live in a society with free expression and independent judicial systems is merely just side effects. I find it very difficult to point the finger at those individuals. The amount of extrapolation being done here from a single post on social media is almost ridiculous. Not to mention communicating on personal profiles, not as some representative for the company. Context and intention matter. This will ultimately have a wider effect on society as a whole, if organizations decide to act as proxies for countries with different value systems and people bring out pitchforks over some mindless throw-away social media content. We'll end up with the society we all choose to create.
raxxorrax 5y ago
We currently have a severe moral panic on the topic of racism. Almost everyone accused and not distancing themselves from anything that could be remotely associated with it makes someone guilty. Just to remember: Racism is if you attribute properties to races, a very unscientific term, and think yourself superior to others due to these properties. Luckily, that is a quite rare occurrence today. It doesn't have anything to do with power, it doesn't have anything to do with privilege and most people accused of it are innocent. There are exceptions of course.

spoonjim 5y ago

Of course the CCP wouldn’t, only the West is capable of the self-own that is modern Victim Culture.

AnimalMuppet 5y ago
cough Cultural Revolution cough Or was that sarcasm?
frenchyatwork 5y ago
Isn't victim culture (somewhat legitimately) a core part of the modern Chinese national spirit? See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_of_humiliation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_of_humiliation
- spoonjim 5y ago
  Yes, but that victim status is seen as a dishonor, not something to be celebrated.

shadowgovt 5y ago

If I'm an employee at a company and post something like that on Twitter, nobody should be surprised if I suddenly find myself in the unemployment line because (perhaps unbeknownst to me) my company was right in the middle of closing a big deal with a Chinese company. Not saying it's morally correct, but those are the dynamics in play here. A university is an organization, and while the incentives and financial structure is different from, say, a manufacturing corp, the general principle of "your members will be dealt with if they burn bridges for the larger organization" applies.

frenchyatwork 5y ago
As long as it's not clearly hateful, universities typically allow greater freedom of expression than you normally get in a commercial organization, because the ability to criticize the zeitgeist and common sense belief is critical to the development of the arts & sciences. Of course, there is typically a tension between allowing academic freedom and pleasing whoever holds the purse strings. University administrations often have to very carefully balance between upsetting their income sources and devolving into a propaganda machine.
- trasz 5y ago
  We’re not talking about criticizing anything; the tweet was racist.
dmix 5y ago
The "dynamics at play" here begins and ends with the company itself making deals with authoritarian countries. The fact the brunt of the consequences trickles down to employees or students who grew up and live in a society with free expression and independent judicial systems is merely just side effects. I find it very difficult to point the finger at those individuals. The amount of extrapolation being done here from a single post on social media is almost ridiculous. Not to mention communicating on personal profiles, not as some representative for the company. Context and intention matter. This will ultimately have a wider effect on society as a whole, if organizations decide to act as proxies for countries with different value systems and people bring out pitchforks over some mindless throw-away social media content. We'll end up with the society we all choose to create.

raxxorrax 5y ago

We currently have a severe moral panic on the topic of racism. Almost everyone accused and not distancing themselves from anything that could be remotely associated with it makes someone guilty. Just to remember: Racism is if you attribute properties to races, a very unscientific term, and think yourself superior to others due to these properties. Luckily, that is a quite rare occurrence today. It doesn't have anything to do with power, it doesn't have anything to do with privilege and most people accused of it are innocent. There are exceptions of course.