UCLA Police Probe Threats After Student's Anti-Asian Rant

The student laments the number of Asian people on campus and calls on UCLA students to "use American manners"

Police at UCLA are investigating threatening calls and e-mails a white student says she received after posting a video on YouTube making fun of Asians.

UCLA spokesman Phil Hampton said Tuesday that Alexandra Wallace reported receiving numerous messages after the video went online over the weekend.

Hampton says he hasn't seen the messages himself but declined to characterize them as rising to the level of death threats.

In three three-minute video, Wallace lashes out at Asian students, using a fake Asian accent to chastise students who use their cell phones in the library.

"In America, we do not talk on our cell phones in the library,'' Wallace says in the video.

The junior political science major also laments that large numbers of Asian people, whom she described as relatives of students, descend on the university area on weekends.

"It's seriously without fail. You will always see old Asian people running around this apartment complex every weekend," she says. "That's what they do. They don't teach their kids to fend for themselves.

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"If you're going to come to UCLA, then use American manners."

More than 40 percent of the students at UCLA are Asian.

On Monday, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said the student's rant "does not represent the views of our UCLA community."

Block said he was "appalled'' by the video.

"This one act certainly does not represent the views of our UCLA community. Our community is built on mutual respect and civility, and we are committed to fostering an environment that values and supports every member of the community," Block said in a letter. "It is most unfortunate that a single clip on the Internet undermines that environment by expressing hurtful and shameful ideas about others in our community. I believe that speech that expresses intolerance toward any group of people on the basis of race or gender, or sexual, religious or cultural identity is indefensible and has no place at UCLA."

The university is investigating whether Wallace's remarks violated UCLA's student code of conduct. In his letter, Block did not address any possible discipline the student might face
 
"It wasn't cool for her to blame us for her being really stressed out," a student told NBC LA.

"I think she does have a right to say things that she feels, but people on the Internet have a right to respond," another student said.

Wallace released a statement to the UCLA campus newspaper, the Daily Bruin, saying, "Clearly the original video posted by me was inappropriate."

"I cannot explain what possessed me to approach the subject as I did and if I could undo it, I would," the statement said. "I'd like to offer my apology to the entire UCLA campus. For those who cannot find it within them to accept my apology, I understand.''

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