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16 April, 2002
ASIANS
IN THE NEWS
The stereotype is that Asians are a "model minority." That means in part that we don't complain, we're quiet, and that we are accommodating when something happens.
| Because the most offensive article in the paper was the Nickelodeon satire, the story was perceived as a black issue by the media. |
The attempted satire included an offensive article about a fake Nickelodeon spinoff, "Niggalodeon," airing cartoons for African American children. It also included a short article about a student looking for "sucky-fucky" from "Hot Asian Babes." The cover story was about Colorado College being sold to the Chinese mafia, with a thug warning students, "Do not mess with us. We know kung fu."
It didn't take long for the students of Colorado College in Colorado Springs to rally resources and fight back against the publication.
Shelley Wong, co-chair of the AASU, sent out an e-mail asking for support that was quickly forwarded among the Denver-area APA community, and a meeting was scheduled for Saturday, April 13, with Denver-area members of the Colorado Asian Pacific Student Association (CAPSA) and representatives of other APA organizations to report on their accomplishments. The meeting was held at the Denver Public Library Central Branch, in the same seventh-story conference room that hosted the world's most powerful leaders during the 1997 Summit of the Eight meeting. Wong was accompanied by more than a half-dozen representatives of the AASU as well as other CC students.
Wong reported that she and eight other minority student leaders met with CC president Kathryn Mohrman, who agreed to six of seven demands including a formal apology from Mohrman; the resignation of the editor and managing editor, who were paid staffers; mandatory journalism training for the Catalyst newspaper staff (there is no journalism course at CC); and diversity training for faculty and staff. The meeting with Morhman was followed by a widely covered press conference.
In her e-mail, Wong acknowledges the issue won't be solved with a few changes. "Important and historical steps have taken place at CC," she writes. "But this isn't enough. We have to continue to chip away at insensitivity, ignorance, and racism here because this was not an isolated incident. Every minority (person) on this campus has felt unsafe and had racial attacks on us at social events and in classes. In classes because professors often make ignorant comments. At social events because we have been kicked out because we 'looked' like we didn't belong to the school."
At the Denver Public Library, the students from Colorado Springs proposed creating a statewide network of APA student organizations to continue discussions about race issues, and to serve as a hotline for racial incidents. They also hope to convene an annual meeting about racial issues, with CC hosting the first one next year. Then, those of us gathered around the table applauded the role that the AASU played.
This meeting didn't receive and media attention, but maybe it should have.
I found it interesting, after reading the coverage of the controversy by the Colorado Springs Gazette, that the press focused entirely on the African American students. Because the most offensive article in the paper was the Nickelodeon satire, the story was perceived as a black issue by the media. Although the AASU was outraged and involved in the protest, the Black Students Union took the lead in contacting the media driving the meeting with Morhman and African American students were the ones who spoke at the press conference, with "one voice" on behalf of all the minority students.
The Denver Post's coverage of the controversy, which ran on Sunday, quoted several CC students but no Asians. I shot off an e-mail to the reporter, Jeffrey Leib, gently chastising him for not having an APA voice in his article. He responded that he had tried contacting 40 sources for the story, including APA student leaders, and that in fact he had left several messages for Shelley Wong. But he was writing his story on a Saturday, which made it harder to contact people.
I think that Asians are nearly invisible in the news because although we are a sprawling, diverse community with many differences, we share a cultural aversion to attention. The well-known Japanese saying is that the nail that sticks out will be hammered down. Don't make waves. Keep quiet, don't complain. Accommodate. The Japanese have a word, "gambatte," which means to "endure." Just grit your teeth and take it.
And of course, there is the fact that Asians are somewhat fractured as a community. A reporter I know who says that from his perspective only he African American students were involved in the CC protest, noted that he thinks African Americans as a community have more solidarity than other ethnic minorities, and that Asians are such a broad group that it's hard to create a coalition over issues that affect them.
Enough already!
Racism affects all Asians as it affects all minorities. It's ironic, but racism does not discriminate. I'm not much of a radical, but I think Asians as a group need a kick in the butt to learn how to get organized, how to protest, how to build community coalitions that reach out to other Asians, and build relationships with the media. A weekend reporter should be able to easily find a cell phone number for an Asian leader or spokesperson on a college campus. The media should have contact information for APA leaders and organizations, so the barriers to getting our collective voice heard are minimized.
If we want our voice heard in the media, we need to make more noise. If we want our opinions expressed and issues discussed publicly, we have to reach outside of our own communities and learn to be comfortable with the attention it will bring.
Because of the controversy sparked by its attempts at social satire, the Catalyst may end up being a catalyst for change for students at Colorado College- and perhaps the rest of us, if we can all learn from the experience.