UCLA Student Latest to Joke About Japan Quake

Mar. 16, 2011— -- UCLA student Alexandra Wallace received death threats after her Internet rant about Asians on campus went viral last weekend, making her just the latest person to face a backlash for off-color comments following Japan's earthquake and tsunami disaster.

On Monday, Wallace, a junior political science major, apologized for her videotaped tirade, titled "Asians in the Library." In the video posted Friday, the same day the earthquake and tsunami hit, Wallace vented about "the hordes of Asian people" at UCLA and mocked them for talking on the phone in the library.

"Ohhhh! Ching chong ling long ting tong!" she said, imitating an Asian student talking on the phone.

Referencing the tsunami, which has killed thousands and left millions homeless, she said the students were probably checking on their relatives but they should take their phone calls outside.

After the video was posted on YouTube, Wallace received angry phone calls and e-mails and sought police protection after she was threatened multiple times.

She apologized for the video in a letter to the campus newspaper: "Clearly the original video posted by me was inappropriate," she said in the statement. "I cannot explain what possessed me to approach the subject as I did, and if I could undo it, I would. I'd like to offer my apology to the entire UCLA campus. For those who cannot find it within them to accept my apology, I understand."

The school's chancellor Gene Block called the incident "a sad day for UCLA."

Wallace wasn't the only person apologizing for an ill-timed remark. Comic Gilbert Gottfried, who lost his job as the voice of the Aflac duck after making light Japan's disaster, also apologized Tuesday.

"I sincerely apologize to anyone who was offended by my attempt at humor regarding the tragedy in Japan," he told The Hollywood Reporter and his followers via posts on Twitter. "I meant no disrespect, and my thoughts are with the victims and their families."

Gottfried's troubles began when he tweeted, "Japan is really advanced. They don't go to the beach. The beach comes to them" and "I just split up with my girlfriend, but like the Japanese say, 'They'll be another one floating by any minute now."