FDNY Bill Addressed to 'Unknown Asian'

'The funny thing for us was that there are so many Asians at this school,' says staffer
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 12, 2013 10:33 AM CST
FDNY Bill Addressed to 'Unknown Asian'
FDNY firefighters are seen in this file photo.   (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

If you're sending mail to The New School in New York City, we advise addressing it to a specific student or faculty member, or maybe, in a pinch, to a department. We definitely don't advise addressing it to "Unknown Asian." But that's what the FDNY did when it sent a $784 ambulance bill to the school, the New York Post reports. "I hesitated to open it," says staffer Christine Ahn. "But then I was like, 'Well, I could be an unknown Asian.'"

The FDNY says the bill is a "clerical or administration error." An FDNY ambulance transported a female student who had a "drug or intoxication" issue in November, it explains, and the EMS worker filling out the paperwork couldn't get her name and so wrote "Unknown" in the first name slot, and "Asian" for the last name. Mistake or not, some took offense. "There must be 'unknown Hispanic' or 'unknown African-American bills out there," says another New School employee. (More race relations stories.)

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