why care?
by elaine chenThe importance of education and empowerment of our communities
In early October, hardboiled received a letter from a high school senior in response to an article written in Issue 12.1...I just want to comment on an article called "Non-first generation students": I myself, am a second-generation Chinese-American, and found myself attracted to this quote:
"We easily conformed to our American classmates and sung to tunes such as "America the Beautiful" and "Grand Ole Flag." In middle school, we were all part of some social studies class that tricked us into thinking that history was something that made the clock tick slower... something that extended the number of pages in our textbooks without our knowledge. High school was not much different for most of us. What was not boring was simply irrelevant. The irony of it all is that very few people challenged or even thought to challenge the irrelevance of textbook history. I have recently been drawn to a little something called reflection, and cannot help but reflect on why no one ever asked, "Where are all the Asian Americans in history?" The omission of generations and generations of Asian Americans throughout history is something many of us have just realized. Such a realization has had a profound effect on how non-first-generation Asian Americans situate themselves in modern society."
These are true facts. However, in order to really ask the question, "Where are all the Asian Americans in history?", one must ask: why does that matter?
I don't know; it's important to know AA history, but people I know don't care about Asian-American activism/history because they are more focused on their lives, not on going on wondering what their identities are. They're happy doing whatever they are right now. That's why there isn't much of a priority about AA history, even within my age group. Our US history textbook, for example, does not mention how AAs fought for civil rights (where's International House and The Third World Liberation Front, or Vincent Chin?). It's going to be a hard audience to persuade on why it matters; I find myself wondering why it matters, even though I believe it's important. Most people around me do not care about AA history/studies as much as the previous generations because we have a lot of opportunities around us.
In the coming years, as we are facing more problems, such as the economy, foreign policy, global warming, the dwindling supply of fossil fuels, your going to turn to faces asking us: why does it matter that we learn about Asian-American history the same way people will ask why East Asian Languages are important? Why does it matter? Even though I enjoy reading Hardboiled, I myself have grown apathetic towards the Asian-American movement because of more "important problems" which our world is facing today.
Although a few of our editors (...or maybe just one of our editors) is convinced that this email to us is all part of a huge conspiracy (since, I mean, we didn't know high school students would read... well anything, let alone an Asian American newsmagazine from UC Berkeley), I felt compelled to respond to a lot of the comments made in this email. Hi Francis. I hope this reaches you.
Firstly, I just want to see, it's easy to see where you're coming from. Why care? As a high school senior, it's easy to question "why"-anything. When I was a senior in high school, all I cared about was getting into Berkeley for the following fall and making sure I don't eff up my last year in high school after all the hard work I did in my life to that point. I didn't have time to think about my "Asian American identity" (whatever that meant), or to contemplate why Asian Americans weren't in textbooks. Sure, I'd occassionally make the fleeting comment about the subtly racist nature of our history textbooks and how the only thing I really learned about "my people" was that they worked on the railroads, had long queues, and lived in dirty dingy Chinatowns, but that was the extent of my socialization as an Asian American.
So it's easy to see where you coming from. Why care about these things if we aren't even exposed to them in the first place?
Race permeates society, no matter how much we'd like to avoid it and claim that the world is now colorblind. Everything is fairer now than it was in the past, right? Because hey, we're not interning people all over the place and having Jim Crow laws that prohibit certain races from exercising their rights. And, yeah, wasn't that what the Civil Rights Movement was for? So that we didn't have to worry about things like this anymore? But if the world were truly colorblind, where are all the Asian American CEOs? Why do you have to squint so hard to find the Asian American representation in Congress? Why do so many Asian Americans get glossed over in college admissions amidst all the claims that Asian Americans are "overrepresented"?
I think a lot of times people mistake Asian American studies as being just a bunch of classes where people gripe about racism that they've experienced and how much society sucks. Although there's always a fair amount of those moments in the more poorly run discussion sections, to me, I always saw Asian American studies as broadening my worldview and outlook on things. Where was all this information, growing up in my life?
I had always attributed the lack of attention in the textbooks and classrooms towards Asian Americans to outdatedness. These books are from the '80s, so they probably don't have Asians in them because Asians in American are only a recent phenomenom... my own parents didn't come until the '80s, so it would make sense if their stories weren't covered... right? That was what I had thought up until my sophomore in college before taking my first Asian American studies course here. That is when I realized that what was worse than being omitted from textbooks was the fact that I was contributing to this erasure of my own people with my own thoughts.
I didn't like this feeling of being erased. And I didn't like this feeling of a whole communitiy of people, making up 45% of Berkeley and nearly 40% of my hometown of Temple City, being erased.
But why care? It all boils down back to that question. I think the reason why I was so eager to respond to this question was actually because this email came at a very pertinent time for me personally. It's actually a question that I've been struggling with these past few weeks. This marks the third year of my career here at Berkeley and another semester where I overload myself with commitments to orgs, events, and causes. You note, "I'm starting to wonder why it matters, though I believe it's important." Funnily, I wondered the same thing.
I procrastinated this article for a long time. Despite being someone being entirely rigid about deadlines and gets panicky whenever I miss an important date, I really did not know the best way to respond to this, probably because I struggle with this question so much too. After weeks of wondering about this question, I've come to the conclusion that the reason why it matters so much to me is simply because I love my people.
To me, studying Asian American studies and working in the Asian American community isn't just about recognizing racism wherever and whenever it appears and being able to point it out to everyone. It's about so many other things: it's about empowerment, it's about loving yourself, it's about acceptance and tolerance.
I don't think I had this kind of love before, growing up. If I did, it was definitely underdeveloped and shallow. Of course it would be... how could I love something that I knew nothing about? That would be blind love, which makes no sense, really. The love was undeveloped because, though I was surrounded by Asians growing up, I didn't realize the significance of their presence in my life. All I knew about Asians were that we were lumped together in the same racial category and we all came from Asia at one point.
But as I began to learn about my communities and the people that make up those communities, I began to realize that it's not so much that Asian Americans don't have a story, but that it's a story often untold. Why care about the Asian American movement in the 60s? Why know about Vincent Chin? Who cares about I-House? To me, these events all illustrate the dominant power structure trying to muffle the voices of my communities, and ultimately, muffling my voice.
But there are also stories about people rising up and fighting back. Trying to get counted and make a difference. To say that we too are part of America, and we can't really be erased from existance. These stories aren't told to just illustrate that racism exists. These stories are told to illustrate to us that as a community, we are beautiful and significant. Although we are frequently forgotten in the between the black-and-white divide, that does not mean that we can't break through and get noticed.
The work that I do today is to indicate to everyone else that they are beautiful and signficant. But how can they know that if they aren't educated first? That is so central. There are plenty of Asian Americans out there, even at Berkeley, even in Asian American clubs on campus, that ask themselves "why care?" It was painful to see people who were part of the Asian American community have no clue that they held membership to this, and could not see the importance of recognizing this. If only they knew. Then maybe they would care just as much as me too.
Education is so central towards recognizing your own importance and significance here in America. And that starts with learning about your people, where you came from, and why. Why care about history? Why care about your people? Because you shouldn't be erased, you shouldn't be invisible merely because of you are of a certain race.
Elaine
PS
You should totally apply to Berkeley. And join hardboiled!