Thoughts on proportion » « Free the 17

Ben Edelman has apologized

Fair’s fair. I pointed at him for being a poopyhead so it’s only right to point out that he’s agreed he was a poopyhead and apologized for being it.

Here is Edelman’s newest statement, via his personal website:

Many people have seen my emails with Ran Duan of Sichuan Garden restaurant in Brookline.

Having reflected on my interaction with Ran, including what I said and how I said it, it’s clear that I was very much out of line. I aspire to act with great respect and humility in dealing with others, no matter what the situation. Clearly I failed to do so. I am sorry, and I intend to do better in the future.

I have reached out to Ran and will apologize to him personally as well.

Now that’s an apology.

Good outcome.

Thoughts on proportion » « Free the 17

Comments

  4. says

    Nice! He very publicly made an ass of himself and now he very publicly apologized, sincerely. Great that he’s reaching out to also apologize personally, but since the offense was public the apology really needed to be public as well, to be fair.

    It’s very refreshing that he didn’t offer some kind of weak notpology instead, or worse yet, double-down. He didn’t trivialize it in any way or make excuses. He acknowledged his fault and vowed to do better in the future. He didn’t mince words and he didn’t shy away from making the apology public.

    Now that’s an apology.

    We agree entirely, spot on!

  5. PatrickG says

    Hang on. Are you sure that’s an apology? It didn’t attempt to defend him or say that mistakes were made or express regret that others were offended…

    Oh wait, that’s a not-pology, right. Been so long since I saw one of these real apologies out in the wild! 🙂

    Good for him.

  6. themann1086 says

    And then it gets worse:

    According to emails provided to Boston.com by Sichuan Garden’s Ran Duan, Edelman sent three messages to the restaurant’s Yahoo! account on Wednesday afternoon.

    First came an email that included an apology.

    About an hour later, an email that included an apparent racial slur.

    “You may have won the battle, Duan, but at least we can agree your menu is a little less slanty-eyed.

    “Thank you.”

    Fifteen minutes later, a final email explaining that the seemingly racist email had been sent accidentially in an effort by Edelman “to make light of the situation to a small group of students.”

    So that happened.

  7. Trebuchet says

    A similar exchange has now surfaced with another Asian restaurant from several years ago. He’s a serial something-or-other. And the Streisand Effect is in full operation.

  8. says

    themann1086 at #6: It now says,

    Earlier tonight, Boston.com published a piece suggesting Harvard Business School Professor Ben Edelman sent an email with racist overtones to Sichuan Garden. We cannot verify that Edelman, in fact, sent the email. We have taken the story down.

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