Purdue University Northwest Chancellor Thomas Keon’s racist mockery of Asian language at the university’s 

commencement ceremony can’t be whitewashed by an apology and rhetoric about “cancel culture.”

Keon’s decision to unleash a racist trope at a moment of celebration for students and their families—including Asian 

students and their families—makes it plain that he is unfit to lead an educational institution, and the milquetoast 

response of the PNW Board of Trustees makes it plain that they don’t get it.

The Purdue Northwest faculty and staff get it. They overwhelmingly voted no-confidence in Keon’s leadership, 

as did the faculty senate, and the PNW chapter of the American University Association of University Professors called for his resignation.

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After the Trustees issued a toothless “letter of formal reprimand,” the chair of the faculty senate wrote an open letter 

saying that “[Keon’s] mere presence is an affront to the Asian community” and students have circulated petitions calling for Keon’s resignation.

What accounts for this disconnect between the PNW’s leadership—Chancellor Keon and the Trustees—and the university community?

Institutionalized racism.

It’s baked into Keon’s choice of an all-white senior leadership team, the snickers on stage at his racist antics, and the spectacle of Keon 

saying he is directing an “interdisciplinary” Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity team “to understand and address issues of importance to the Asian Pacific Islander community at PNW.”

It doesn’t take a team—interdisciplinary or otherwise—to understand that ridiculing any non-English language as gibberish is racist.

The ridicule is key here. This wasn’t a moment of anger where Keon called someone a racist or sexist name because he’d lost his temper

 or felt threatened. Quite the opposite. It was a moment where Keon stood at the apex of his white male power as the chancellor 

of a major university speaking at commencement. He was relaxed and confident enough to engage in some unplanned improvisation, 

sharing with the world what he finds funny. His confidence in his sense of humor is the same confidence Donald Trump displayed 

when he called COVID-19 the “kung-flu” and mocked the accent of Asian world leaders.