Eldred Harris’s question at the presentation session in class about the role of Asian students at a university founded for white students to build the American nation in a land-grant university forced me to think again and contend with the place of Asian people in the America. For me, his question is one that is central to this class and the conversations between Africana studies, Asian American studies, and other ethnic studies.
Raven and I interviewed Professor Evelyn Hu-DeHart (at Brown University) earlier in the semester when she gave a talk about “Spanish Manila and the First American Chinatown,” and our conversation with her also touched upon many of these issues of belonging and of place. Professor Hu-DeHart was a key figure in the transformation of area studies (Asian studies, etc) to ethnic studies (Asian American studies, etc). Although this development was one that is critical to our place in the current-day university, the questions that surround identity within the university (and outside of it) are still being asked. Sometimes, they are asked in different ways, couched in the logic of affirmative action . . . or funding for different departments . . . or programming for international students to help with adjusting to a new environment. Regardless, these questions all deal with our place within a space like Cornell and other spaces where whiteness tends to dominate.
When I answered this question in class, I have to admit that I was uncertain where Eldred was coming from, and my answer might have reflected a quiet but certain irritation that naturally comes when someone implicitly questions your sense of belonging, the community you have made in a place, or your motives and/or morals for being somewhere or doing something. Perhaps the three cups of coffee and five hours of sleep that were part of my Sunday night and Monday morning had to do with it, too.
To be clear, I wanted to re-affirm the diverse perspectives and lives of Asians in the Americas. Yes, there are international students from China, but there are international students from Thailand, from South Korea, from Burma. Yes, there are international students from China, but there are Asian students from the United States, all of whom have different permutations of living as Asian Americans.
Then again, who is to say that the international students from other countries or Asian American students are “better,” in any sense of the word? First, is it wrong to participate in structures that perpetuate capitalism, if it’s something that’s required for finding a livelihood? This is a question I’ve struggled with constantly in my personal life: I am an economics major, although I have a keen interest in different avenues of critical scholarship. But, I also really enjoy economics – the strain that some may denigrate as “neoliberal” and the harbinger of accelerationist collapse. Second, it bears reminding that we should not be judged by our nationality or citizenship, but rather think about our individual actions and the ways we can interpret and deconstruct institutional or societal structures. Prof. Goffe discussed this somewhat at the end of the class, but we’ve also been conversing about these topics through our study of Audre Lorde’s poetry and “finding our yes.” As students, we have an obligation and ability to think critically about these questions and act accordingly.
I was reminded (although I didn’t say it at the time) of Asian settler colonialism, which is a new(er) and less-studied sub-field of Asian American studies that deals with Asian American participation in settler colonialism, or the logic of elimination and erasure of Native peoples. It is also one of my favorite fields of inquiry because of its unique take on how we as Asian Americans act in ways that are harmful to Native people. Professor Dean Saranillio (at NYU) gave a talk at Cornell last semester on this topic, and his book Unsustainable Empires (Duke Press: 2018) is a particularly fascinating one because of its exploration of the history of Asian American exploitation of Native people and land in Hawai’i. I bring this up to point out that there is no objective “better” or “worse” in many contexts. We can only knowledge the past and our current trajectories and lives. Then, we can consider the futures we want to create as individuals and in coalitions or groups.
Afro-Asia isn’t well-defined. Its place in the university and outside of it will constantly be questioned. For Asians, this is true as well – are we a “successful” minority, or should we seek to redefine what it means to be Asian? For black people, troubling stereotypes and the libidinal economy (or socialization, or whatever theory of race you prefer) should be redefined, too. All of you have made incredible comments, thoughtful posts, and created an inspiring body of work through the video projects and the forthcoming essays. Wherever you might go, I hope that we can continue to recognize how our individual and group identities play roles in defining and redefining our place, whether at the university or outside.
Some other works about Asian settler colonialism that you might want to check out:
Alien Capital (Day, 2016)
“Asian American critique and Moana Nui 2011: securing a future beyond empires, militarized capitalism and APEC” (Fujikane, 2012)
“Decolonizing history as an aesthetic political enactment: Asian settler colonialism in Hawai’i” (Isaki, 2008)
