This will be my last Alexandra Wallace post, I promise.
On Friday Wallace’s family released a second statement to the Daily Bruin in which she apologized again for her anti-Asian video, and announced that she’s withdrawing from UCLA because of concern for her safety. Earlier that day, UCLA announced that Wallace would not be subject to campus judicial sanctions because of the video.
Here’s the text of Wallace’s second apology:
In an attempt to produce a humorous YouTube video, I have offended the UCLA community and the entire Asian culture. I am truly sorry for the hurtful words I said and the pain it caused to anyone who watched the video. Especially in the wake of the ongoing disaster in Japan, I would do anything to take back my insensitive words. I could write apology letters all day and night, but I know they wouldn’t erase the video from your memory, nor would they act to reverse my inappropriate action.
I made a mistake. My mistake, however, has lead to the harassment of my family, the publishing of my personal information, death threats, and being ostracized from an entire community. Accordingly, for personal safety reasons, I have chosen to no longer attend classes at UCLA.
This seems like an appropriate time to revisit some advice I offered in the wake of the Tyler Clementi incident last fall: Don’t be a jackass. It could ruin your life.
studentactivism.net 
23 comments
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March 19, 2011 at 8:54 am
Silver Fang
While I certainly agree that Wallace’s video was stupid and tasteless, I think it’s wrong that she has been threatened to the point where she feels the need to drop out of UCLA for her safety. She made a stupid mistake, but her whole life and career shouldn’t be forfeit over it.
March 19, 2011 at 1:42 pm
Michelle
“THE ENTIRE ASIAN CULTURE.” Because there’s just the one.
March 19, 2011 at 2:03 pm
Angus Johnston
SF, I’d suggest taking the whole “personal safety reasons” thing with a grain of salt. Even in the absence of any threats or harassment, Wallace was doomed to have a really uncomfortable experience at UCLA going forward, and I’d have been shocked if she hadn’t dropped out of school.
She said something aggressively repulsive in about the most public forum there is. That’s more than just a “mistake.” It’s a deliberate act with entirely predictable consequences, and the fact that SHE couldn’t predict them doesn’t make her any less culpable, or any more sympathetic.
As Wallace says, she’s been ostracized by the entire UCLA community. She has nobody to blame for that but herself.
March 19, 2011 at 11:13 pm
Scott Lord
This will be my first Alexandra Wallace Post. Please acknowledge that I have left post at UCLA inviting her to accept me as her pupil. Please impart to her that I specificly asked for her to be my study partner in any independent study she could create.
March 20, 2011 at 12:55 am
Sat
Hi, I am a Japanese student in US. I’m really sad about her offensive action. Especially after earthquake and tsunami, Japanese students have been depressed and emotional, so her words harm easily a lot of Japanese. Although I hope she is in safe, I’m glad that she won’t receive Poli Sci degree at UCLA. Can you imagine if she become a part of US government?
March 20, 2011 at 11:11 am
UCLA Girl Rants Against Asians - Page 5 - LotusTalk - The Lotus Cars Community
[…] It appears she has opted to drop out. source: Alexandra Wallace Apologizes Again, Announces She’s Dropping Out of UCLA Student Activism […]
March 20, 2011 at 11:03 pm
Beet
The sad thing is that UCLA has a very good poli sci department. Yet they obviously could not teach this undergraduate basic racial sensitivity after 2.5 years of study. How does one go to a school that is 37 percent Asian yet still have these attitudes after 2.5 years?? How did she study in her first semester finals, second semester finals, third semester finals, fourth semester finals…??
March 21, 2011 at 4:27 pm
Matt
Actually Beet, it is probably because of that environment and feeling of being outnumbered that led to her making that video in the first place. Her attitude about Asian students is not that uncommon at universities. I think this can be a lesson to everyone who does VLOGs on Youtube to watch what they say. There’s freedom of expression, but not without some expectation of retaliation when you do something negative.
March 22, 2011 at 2:03 am
Carl
A racist is a racist. The only mistake here is to let herself be outed so publicly and so soon. I have encountered many closeted racists who claim to have “friends” of other races, but make racial slurs against those “friends” behind their backs. Those are the dangerous ones.
March 22, 2011 at 12:30 pm
Dave
“Beauty fades, dumb is forever”. ~ Judge Judy
March 22, 2011 at 12:48 pm
Jay
Just saw a news today and figures I would make one more post.
Will someone please tell me how an AMERICAN (with real courage) like Taylor Anderson (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_japan_earthquake_us_victim) weren’t a graduate from UCLA but an AMERICAN (with manners) like Alexandra Wallace got in?
Beat the hell out of me.
March 22, 2011 at 2:54 pm
Kevin
I find it pointedly ironic that in the name of tolerance we declare that we must be intolerant of those who express themselves in even the most offensive fashion. I would love to believe that those who are vigilantly intolerant of those who are ignorant would be able to discriminate what is abusive from a meaningless random blog by a 20 year old girl. Unfortunately, those who are intolerant of random ignorance have proven to be as immature as the personal rants of college freshman.
She should not be ostracized. In the name of tolerance, she should be welcomed back into the UCLA community after her apology letter. But no…. in the name of tolerance we will abuse, ostracize, persecute and shun people who do not agree with our point of view.
Ignorance is as ignorance does.
March 23, 2011 at 3:33 pm
Christie
I wholeheartedly agree with the above posts, except for the very first (SF) and the last from Kevin. Tolerance, intolerance…what? The whole post is very confusing…the situation cannot be neatly pared down to “random ignorance.” Repulsive racial discrimination after the Japanese tsunami (She posted the video on Friday night- the earthquake happened, Thursday, PST), and indignantly believing her “rights” to a quiet library to be violated, when over 10,000 Japanese were dead…. she SHOULD have been expelled. At least she had the right to drop out on her own terms. She should be grateful for even that.
Poli Sci major at UCLA??? I’m REALLY glad she dropped out- I would not want her anywhere near/in the US Government. What a catastrophe!
March 23, 2011 at 3:35 pm
NorCal Student
Good riddance to BAD RUBBISH!!!
March 24, 2011 at 3:05 pm
Free Speech is Constitutional
Kevin is right. If we truly believe in student activism. which is the title of this blog in the first place, we should engage in student activism for free speech.
March 25, 2011 at 2:59 am
Emily
Sure, she has every right to say whatever the hell she wants. By the same token, I have every right to judge her and dislike her based on those comments. She’s not just a “20 year old girl,” but an ADULT who got into UCLA, one of the top universities in the world, and as such, should have known that every action has consequences.
Her racist and insensitive words were directed at and antagonized a huge percentage of the UCLA community (35% of the students attending UCLA are Asian), so it comes as no surprise that it would not be comfortable situation for her even without the threats.
March 25, 2011 at 1:46 pm
Susan
I think this whole thing is overblown. Everyone is a little inherently racist but some people just have more sense than others not to broadcast their racial intolerance over the internet. The girl was just peeved because some asian person was disturbing her during her studying. It’s understandable that she was thinking irrationally at the time (perhaps she was really stressed because of finals) but really, why didn’t she just complain to a friend?
I guess its too bad for her that she didn’t thnk about the consequences of her actions. But at the same time, I feel sorry for her, and especially for her family who does not deserve to be harassed for her actions. I guess this teaches us to think before we speak/act.
March 25, 2011 at 2:45 pm
Emily
For those of you who think that this was just “a mistake,” you should know that this was not a one-off frustrated video rant, but was probably meant as the first in a series of video blogs she was going to post about Asians. Apparently, she was planning on creating an entire website dedicated to this topic, and had consulted her dad before posting the video about what domain names she should get.
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/03/17/3481791/ucla-student-who-posted-anti-asian.html
Her comments went beyond just ignorant stereotyping of Asians as loud, and was more than just her venting about annoying Asians in the library. Her video was filled with contemptuous phrases like “hoards of Asian people UCLA accepts into OUR school” or “learn AMERICAN manners” which suggests her feelings of superiority over an entire race of people. That’s not just ignorance, that’s racism at its core.
March 25, 2011 at 11:02 pm
Dan Smith
From what I’ve heard, she was already known to others as a arrogant racist before this. Hope she lands herself in a dead end job where her racism won’t do anything to destroy her hamburger flipping career. I really don’t think she’ll be able to get into a college again, or a good job unless she has good connections. Google Alexandra Wallace, and she’s done in any job or college application.
March 26, 2011 at 11:02 pm
Richard
Does anyone think her original rant was an attempt to make a”humorous video?” A simple, sincere apology would have been a good first step. By trying to pass it off as “humorous,” she acknowledging that she still doesn’t get how she offended so many people.
Aren’t poly sci majors supposed to understand politics, history and social dynamics?
I don’t know what Alexandra plans to do after she graduates — but I doubt she’ll have any easy time finding an employer or internship or graduate school interested in taking her.
March 27, 2011 at 12:37 am
Anonymous
lmao she’s now trying to say her vid was supposed to be a “humorous” video to cover up the effect of what she ranted on. .. .. she aint even sorry for what she’s done; i dont even think she apologized for that reason.. if you know what i mean.
March 31, 2011 at 9:26 pm
Bruce
Alexandra Wallace once again shows why there are so many dumb blonde jokes.
Joking aside, This is simply not just her instantaneous rant but it goes deeper than that. She has been harboring her feeling, bias, rage and hatred for so long that they now just exploded. She articulated them very well by the language she used, her facial and body expressions in the video. Now, she said she did not know what possessed her to do that. What a cop-out, Alexandra! You’re an adult and you know exactly what you are saying and doing.
Now just imagine that people with feelings and beliefs like hers have ever gotten to the position of power and acted out their rage and hatred. Think about, Hitler and his cohorts in their youth already showed their rage and hatred toward Jewish people, and look at what they did to them when they got the power to do it. It’s frightening.
April 18, 2011 at 10:19 pm
Jay Knott
“This seems like an appropriate time to revisit some advice I offered in the wake of the Tyler Clementi incident last fall: Don’t be a jackass. It could ruin your life”, sez Angus.
These are weasel words. Alexandra Wallace’s exercise of free speech and a sense of humor didn’t ruin her life – rather, the carefully staged reaction of p.c. left-wing students and hypersensitive minority types, and the cowardice of academics and college bureaucrats, the media, and blogs like this, interrupted her education. Hopefully she will recover, and stop apologizing. Warning people that jokes could ruin their lives is siding with the mob.