[Flipside]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-29077702

A top London university has apologised to students after a welcome email addressed them as Kung Fu Panda.

The message left some students confused and others worried about "racial stereotyping".

The London School of Economics, where some 25% of undergraduates are of east Asian origin, says the email was a due to "technical problem".

One student said that at first he thought his application had been messed up: "However, I couldn't imagine anyone being named Mr Panda Tiger Test Test Aa-Kung Fu, so I ignored it."

However one student was on holiday in China when he received the email....

[deathfun]

Pfffthaha oh my god that's hilarious

Shame people get offended so easily

[Flipside]

Hehe, yup, thing is, I've worked in those environments and the reference to Kung Fu Panda could have been anything from 'racial stereotyping' to 'finding inspiration from a Disney mug on the desk because it's 5:15pm and I want to go home'.

[deathfun]

And given how often they reference stuff...

The university says that other test names used include Piglet, Paddington, Homer, Bob and Tinkerbell.

...I'm not surprised Kung Fu Panda made the list

And since the email was sent to *all* students, that generally eliminates the whole stereotyping thing. Course, everyone has to be politically correct these days

[Dragon]

Really, there should be a limit of what can be considered "reasonably offensive". I can see no way a reasonable person would get offended by something like that. And if people don't get the reference, that's their problem (and even then "test test" should be a pretty big hint). The only thing the University could have to apologize for would be spamming peoples' e-mails and confusing them with nonsensical messages (this is clearly not the sort of thing that's intended to be seen by anyone not in the know).

[Bobboau]

now you see I am of the opinion that they have every right to be offended by anything they would like, but that their office entitles them to nothing.

[Phantom Hoover]

I was kind of expecting an email storm story when I saw the thread title, it was a bit disappointing to be honest

[karajorma]

Well I can see why East Asian students might be offended at getting an email addressed to Kung-Fu Panda. But the second you talk to someone who isn't East Asian, you should realise this wasn't anything but a mistake.

And if you don't talk to anyone who isn't East Asian, maybe you need to think about who is the racist.