A Duke University political science professor is causing an uproar after he compared Asian and African Americans in a response to an editorial from the New York Times.
In an online response to "How Racism Doomed Baltimore," Jerry Hough said Asians have faced discrimination as bad as African Americans. Hough went on to say, as The New York Post reported, "They didn't feel sorry for themselves, but worked doubly hard."
Hough continued his response saying, "I am a professor at Duke University. Every Asian student has a very simple old American first name that symbolizes their desire for integration. Virtually every black has a strange new name that symbolizes their lack of desire for integration."
Hough, who was on unrelated leave from the university when prior to the online comments, told The Associated Press that it is not racist to discuss what he thinks are differences among groups over the past decades.
His only regret, according to The Associated Press, "the sloppiness in saying every Asian and nearly every black," he wrote in an email to AP. "I absolutely do not think it is racist to ask why black performance on the average is not as good as Asian on balance, when the Asians started with the prejudices against the 'yellow races' shown in the concentration camps for the Japanese."
Hough calls himself a disciple of Martin Luther King Jr. He said he is upset that the country has not integrated more, saying :My purpose is to help achieve the battle of King's battle to overcome and create a melting pot America."
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