 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||
Pan-Asian What?
By Naomi Iwasaki
This aritlce has previously appeared in Gidra and appears by permission of the author.
I guess you could say I grew up pretty sheltered in the LA Japanese
American community.
Two main Yonsei characteristics, Japanese American-league basketball since
elementary school and church affiliation (in my case, Buddhist), I covered
in high school. I also wrote for the Rafu Shimpo, a JA community newspaper,
went to obons (summer Buddhist temple festivals) and New Year's mochitsukis
to pound mochi. Almost every other JA I met either knew my parents, was related
to me, or their parents knew mine.
My LA-JA resume was complete.
UC
Berkeley Culture Shock
But as I drove up the I-5 to start my freshman year at Berkeley, I left this
community to enter another completely cultural shocking one.
As most people know, UC's like Cal, UCLA and Irvine have increasing Asian populations.
The last statistic I heard about my school was that Asians comprised around
40-45% of the student body. And I didn't need to know numbers to feel the presence
of Asians when I stepped on campus.
Yeah I'll admit I was excited at first. My high school didn't have that many
APIs and I would finally be at a school with a large Asian community.
But, if anything, what I found at Berkeley opened my eyes to the differences
between all the students who checked the "Asian/Pacific Islander" box
on our UC applications.
I felt like I couldn't connect with most of Cal. 20% of the school is Chinese,
with Koreans and Asian Indians not far behind. Most of these Asian students
are first/second generation straight out of middle/upper class suburbs around
Southern California. Almost everyone would answer the typical nice-to-meet-you
question of "where are you from?" with "L.A." But when
I'd ask what part of L.A., I'd get answers like "Chino Hills", "Diamond
Bar" or even "Fountain Valley."
It was real different being surrounded by all these people who received Lexuses
and Beamers for their 16th birthdays. Although most of my friends at home had
cars, none of them required the luxury taxes these high-class rides came with.
And it wasn't just class values that separated me from most of the Asian students
on campus. Political unawareness plagues UC Berkeley as a whole, but particularly
amongst the Asian students. Most of them seemed to be solely self-centered,
whether it be pumping up their GPA, resume or social status.
*
It disappointed me that on a campus where our strength could lie in numbers,
Asians could be so segregated in terms of priorities. Even the Asian American
Studies intro class for the major is dubbed "AmScam" by students,
since it's believed to be the class to enroll in if you wanna hook up with
some hottie of Asian descent.
I grew up with parents who were involved in the Asian American movement when
Ethnic Studies and Asian American Studies were first implemented at universities
like Cal and UCLA thirty years ago. Though they never pressured me to be the
Ethnic Studies major I am today, I was blessed with their upbringing that allowed
me to develop a political perspective of the struggles APIs faced before they
were almost half a UC population. I couldn't help but be disgusted that a program
so hard fought for by my parents' generation could have been reduced to a classroom
social club.
Especially at a university who boasts the flagship Ethnic Studies department
in the country. A department initiated in the 60's by students of color, including
APIs..
A Different World:
the East Bay
Just 10 minutes from campus I encountered another new, very different Asian
community. The API communities of the East Bay who weren't enrolled at UC Berkeley.
Freshman year, I felt there was more to my college career than the "college" aspect
and to be totally isolated on the elite academic island that is Cal seemed
like such a waste of time. How could I spend all my days in a library like
some students when most of the relevant-to-real-life knowledge I'd learned
in my life came from outside the classroom. I started to get involved with
youth work in the surrounding Bay Area, mostly Oakland and Richmond.
Working with the overcrowded public schools and underfunded community centers
in the East Bay, many of the students I come in contact with are Southeast
Asian, some Chinese and Pacific Islander. Most of the Southeast Asian students
are refugees or children of refugees. All of the students are from working
class backgrounds and not on the collegebound track in their schools. None
of them have a BMW.
I once asked some students from Richmond High up in the Bay area about what
stereotypes there are about Asians. I had just come from my Asian American
Studies class at Cal, where we hashed out the typical model minority, science
or business/economics major, Honda/Banana Republic sporting Asian.
"Everyone thinks us Asians are on welfare." one of the girls said.
"Yeah, and that we're all holdin' dank or in a gang." another chimed
in.
I asked them about they thought of the stereotypes my class had brought up,
not a few hours earlier.
My question was answered: "What's a model minority?"
