On Sunday, the members of the Asian Pacific Coalition decided to withdraw a submission to our Opinion section which addressed two incidents of racist and sexist slurs against Asian American women that occurred on campus last week. The submission contained the word “womyn.” The Daily Bruin informed the students in charge of the submission that we would not publish that word in our newspaper and asked for the word to be changed to “women.” The students who handled the submission felt that taking this word out did not allow them to convey their message. The Daily Bruin editorial staff involved in the story felt that by using the word “womyn” we would be taking a social and political stance. As a news organization, we must remain neutral.
When the Daily Bruin printed in news stories the racial and sexist slurs, the editorial decision was made to print the slurs in full so that we could report accurately and thoroughly on the vandalism, writing exactly what happened so that our readers could know the full extent of the incident.
Discussions are needed to talk about how to resolve these issues. We welcome these discussions and hope that the community will continue to use our Opinion pages as a forum for them.
Update: After extensive consideration and input on this topic, The Bruin decided to run the submission in its original format, along with a note explaining the decision. The submission, along with the editor’s note. is published here.