One Thursday night Marriott Corporation was sponsoring a "Chinese Food Night" on the campus of Binghamton. During this ethnic food night the Marriott Corporation provoked John Choe, who is a student at Binghamton College, to write a letter to the editor of the campus newspaper, Pipe Dream, to argue that the presentation of the Chinese Food Night was an act of ignorance and racism by Marriott Corporation. To John Choe's response two more students wrote back to the editor in Marriott's defense. .
John Choe blames Marriott for showing "insensitive racism" and being ignorant to the fact that the Corporation was using a Chinese man or also known as the "coolie" to represent the Chinese food and their culture. He thinks that Marriott not only should apologize for their "callous behavior" but also for their ignorance. Joseph Kubler, one of the people that responded to John Choe's letter, writes back saying that it was not part of Marriott's intention to represent the standing Chinese man as a racist act towards the Chinese people. He also writes "it is our responsibility to look at the intent of people's actions and true meaning behind them." In other words, people should take upon them selves to learn about Chinese ethnicity and their background. Scott Neufeld, the second person responding to John Choe's letter, writes that he is in Marriott's defense, saying it was an accident and they should be forgiven. He talks about how every Chinese restaurant has a "Chinese man" on their menu and that "nothing really struck passersby as out of the ordinary -, that when people would walk by, their perceptions of Asians were the same as Marriott's, because they were so used to seeing the same image of an old Chinese man in many places. John Choe took on the responsibility himself to see the display as a racist labeling of a "coolie".
John Choe's indictment of The Marriott Corporation was inappropriate even though Marriott put up a display that had demonstrated a Chinese person inappropriately, in his mind.