Oracle Online

Last Thursday, over convo hour, we watched clips from popular films that prove even dancing penguins aren’t exempt from being depicted as racial stereotypes. Last week, Civil Rights legend Hollis Watkins paid our university a visit and recalled white jail wardens trying to trick him into death. Before that, a symbol so imbued with hate, intimidation, and blatant white supremacy that it’s illegal to use it, was found scribbled in two locations on our campus.

Four days before that, because most people are unaware, the Asian Pacific American Coalition held a Day of Remembrance to pay respect to over 30 Asian American victims of racially-motivated hate murders. They remembered Thung Phetakoune, whose head was struck into the pavement by Richard Labbe, who said, “If you’re not going to do anything about those Asians in my country, then I will.” They remembered Kuang Chung Kao, shot down by a police officer who perceived Kao, holding a stick, to be a martial arts expert. They remembered 15-year-old Hung Truong who was beaten to death by two men yelling “white power.” Fifteen years old. Fifteen-year-old Hung Truong who said, “God forgive me for coming to this country, I’m so sorry.” And someone had the audacity to ask one of our Asian friends, “So is this like a guilt trip?”

These are just a few things that put us all in trouble. As individuals, we’re in trouble, batting off racist remarks or seeking refuge from unsafe environments. As students of color, we’re in trouble, seen as having an agenda or an “unhealthy concentration of power” if we speak from our experiences that identify us as a group. As a community, we’re in trouble when we institutionalize policies or procedures that do not reflect or embrace the diversity of our members and our realities.

So we have to ask. What is it that one gains by mocking the concerns of others, by attempting to make light of the issues that trouble us as a community? What is it that one is afraid of, that efforts to eradicate hateful statements, to value others’ countries of origins, to be represented in the curriculum, to be respected in the classroom, are labeled as “manipulation” or as “hijacking” our future? What really troubles you?

We take the trouble to write this because we are concerned that perhaps you’re serious. We’re worried that you hold these beliefs to be true, and that your letter is really just one in a series of letters being written throughout history that label anti-racists as troublemakers, as unnecessary agitators where “there is no immediate, appalling, injustice taking place.” That this is not actually an attack on tactics, on how to do it, but rather an objection that we do it at all, because some people in this world have a lot invested in keeping things the way they are.

It is because we are so troubled that we are proud to address issues that affect our community, to respect one another’s cultures, to give academic credence to the histories of people who have shaped this nation. We are proud to be in that group and we are proud of the people we stand with. It is an honor.

If that’s troubling, we’re all in trouble.

Christy NaMee Eriksen ’07, Ho Nguyen ’08, Andrew Carter ’08, Brittany Perry ’08, Ebony Baggett ’08