KAL IN THE 'HOUSE'
Star talks about racism in the media
Aria Walfrand
Issue date: 5/28/09 Section: News
Kal Penn's recent visit to Union College created great buzz on campus on the topic of diversity. His talk, given last Wednesday May 20 in Memorial Chapel, touched on the few major businesses that control so many different media outlets, and how that affects diversity in television and movies.
Besides talking about his experiences as a minority actor, he read a letter he received shortly after the release of Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle stating how Penn and Cho had misrepresented the Asian community, and then read his response to it. After the lecture was over, a question and answer session took place in which students had the opportunity to ask Penn anything they wanted.
"May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Awareness month," said Penn. "I thought it might be appropriate to give a slant on Asian-American representation on a lecture regarding media studies, fitting in with the month.
So how did Penn get the idea to talk on this subject? It started in his undergraduate career at UCLA.
"A lot of my theater professors didn't offer first hand experience with what they were talking about: a lot of it was theoretical. I loved theory, but I always looked forward to the guest speakers, since they turned the theory into experience. I wanted to have a mix of these two things," he said.
"I thought his talk was great," said Amith Subhash '09. "I don't think people realized how intelligent he was. I think his fame as 'Kumar' is what drew a lot of people to come to Memorial Chapel that night, but they got a lot more than expected. I thought it was an amazing talk, and it generated a lot of conversation among my friends afterwards."
Although his fame as a goofy stoner in the Harold and Kumar movies has taken Penn far, it is not everything. "The vast majority of people do understand the difference between fact and fiction," said Penn.
Soon, Penn will be taking a job in the Obama Administration working as a liaison between people in the administration and the Asian/Pacific Islander community.
Besides talking about his experiences as a minority actor, he read a letter he received shortly after the release of Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle stating how Penn and Cho had misrepresented the Asian community, and then read his response to it. After the lecture was over, a question and answer session took place in which students had the opportunity to ask Penn anything they wanted.
"May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Awareness month," said Penn. "I thought it might be appropriate to give a slant on Asian-American representation on a lecture regarding media studies, fitting in with the month.
So how did Penn get the idea to talk on this subject? It started in his undergraduate career at UCLA.
"A lot of my theater professors didn't offer first hand experience with what they were talking about: a lot of it was theoretical. I loved theory, but I always looked forward to the guest speakers, since they turned the theory into experience. I wanted to have a mix of these two things," he said.
"I thought his talk was great," said Amith Subhash '09. "I don't think people realized how intelligent he was. I think his fame as 'Kumar' is what drew a lot of people to come to Memorial Chapel that night, but they got a lot more than expected. I thought it was an amazing talk, and it generated a lot of conversation among my friends afterwards."
Although his fame as a goofy stoner in the Harold and Kumar movies has taken Penn far, it is not everything. "The vast majority of people do understand the difference between fact and fiction," said Penn.
Soon, Penn will be taking a job in the Obama Administration working as a liaison between people in the administration and the Asian/Pacific Islander community.
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