Guest Opinion: The U Needs an Asian Cultural Center
The Block U on the University of Utah Campus in Salt Lake City on Oct.9, 2014. (Photo via The Daily Utah Chronicle Archive)
February 8, 2023
The rhetoric that Asian Americans are the “model minority” and the consistent practice of excluding Asian Americans from people of color placed together is a dangerous combination — the essence of racial valorization and civic ostracism that feeds into anti-Asian hate and discrimination.
According to Stop AAPI Hate, “from March 19, 2020 to Dec. 31, 2021, a total of 10,905 hate incidents against Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) persons were reported.” Utah is no exception. The state has a history of anti-Asian racism and hate toward Asian immigrants, including a history of hosting Japanese internment camps, where individuals of Japanese descent were forcibly relocated and incarcerated. Former state Rep. Kim Coleman faced charges of racism after writing on her campaign page that the COVID-19 virus came as a “courtesy of the Chinese Communist Party” and was condemned online by people who said she was encouraging xenophobic attacks against people of Asian descent.
Most recently, the University of Utah’s Asian community was also met with anti-Asian racism. Two anti-Asian hate incidents occurred in October 2022, four days apart from each other. Not even a month later, another anti-Asian hate incident occurred. These were verbal harassments that consisted of “go back to your country,” “ching chang” and being called a “ch**k.” These also occurred in public places: the USC football game, the Stadium Trax Station and the J. Willard Marriott Library. All were examples of how those of us who experience Asian diaspora are harmed by xenophobia when we are trying to harmonize our dual/multi-identities.
At the U, 1,929 of 33,081 undergraduate students identified as Asian or Asian-American as of 2020. This makes Asian/Asian-American the third largest specified racial group at the U, and yet our community receives little resources or support. During the height of the pandemic, when America and the rest of the world saw a surge of anti-Asian hate and xenophobia, other universities and colleges took the initiative to offer support and resources to Asian and Asian-American identifying students like creating Asian Cultural Centers. The U has yet to address Asian-targeted racism and bias specifically.
These stats and incident reports all spell out simple but devastating news: racism and hate crimes towards Asian and Asian-American students on campus continue to plague not only our nation but also our very campus community. This pandemic, unlike COVID-19, does not disappear or die down with time or vaccinations, but through community engagement and activism.
But how can the students and community members alike participate in helping combat this issue? The solution is to urge the U to allocate Asian and Asian-American-identifying students a space on campus to call home. A space to feel safe and loved. A space to congregate and share each other’s experiences. A space that we desperately need.
This is the essence of what the U of U Asian Collective wishes to achieve. The purpose of the Collective is to establish an Asian Cultural Center on campus to offer resources and support not only to Asian and Asian-American students, but also to staff and faculty that identify as such. Through this network of love and understanding that is built around the Asian Cultural Center, the campus community can actively engage in disrupting the “model minority” and the monolith myths, among other anti-Asian thoughts and sentiments. This way, the original mission of the Asian Cultural Center grows twofold.
Despite all the benefits and the need for an Asian Cultural Center, the Collective faces harsh pushback and is bombarded with bigotry and racism. We were all aware of what it would take to establish a center at the U. Still, the reality of the situation was a lot worse than what any one of us could have braced for. The difficult burden of striving for equity and justice should not however be carried by the few nor just the BIPOC community. Equity and justice are only achieved through collective understanding and love, and this piece serves not as a call for help but as a call for action. Solidarity and allyship are required to help break this cycle of intolerance.
At the end of the day, no matter how daunting and isolating this line of work may be, we will continue to shield the fire that warms the hearts and minds of those who dare to dream and hope, and this eternal warmth will forever be cemented at the U.
— U of U Asian Collective
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John Hedberg • Oct 12, 2023 at 5:34 pm
A great many attacks on minorities happen at the hands of other minorities, or even within the same minority group (check the national statistics). Every single immigrant group faces that “new kid syndrome” when they get to a new place, and this country is no exception to that human rule. Maybe if we stopped fostering a culture of group hatred and bigotry, and focus on Love & God (by whatever name) & People as Individuals who all hold great worth, we could start by asking ourselves if we can first confront our own bigotries before we try demanding that others, who may be just as innocent, be more responsible for theirs? (I got this idea from Gandhi 🙂)
An Asian Cultural Center is like a Latino Cultural Center: which culture? There are so many (my own family comes from 3 distinct Latino countries, all with their own dialect & culture, none of whom particularly like each other: only in a country as free & open as these United States would they likely ever have inter-married). There is no Latino Culture, just like there is no Asian Culture, so does an “Asian Cultural Center” actually make any sense, when Asians can be Chinese (Mainland or Taiwanese), Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, Mongolian, Kazakh, Israeli, Palestinian, Russian, Iranian, Christian (Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, LDS..), Muslim (Sunni or Shia), Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Marxist… the list goes on. I descend from 10 different ethnic groups: where’s my Cultural Center? I’m BIPOC, but I have different views and beliefs than every other individual who’s also BIPOC, so isn’t “being an ally” really just the same as Love Your Neighbor As Yourself?
Why can’t the whole campus be a “desperately needed” safe space to Love & be Loved for every person?
Also, many East and South Asian students are actively being discriminated against in college admissions in the name of equity & inclusion, even though the Supreme Court declared this discrimination illegal, since it’s inequity & exclusion to these East & South Asian students in favor of groups who are currently being treated as more privileged by elites who run colleges, and whose kids typically go there. When will all discrimination based on any race, religion, gender, ethnicity, or sexual preference end, so we can move on to Dr. King’s Dream of judging each other individually, by the content of our characters and our contributions? If we do this, and every person feels they can expect equal treatment no matter what their immutable characteristics may look like on the outside, then why would we need all these separate Cultural Centers?
If you open a history book of almost anywhere in the world, every single nation and people have both oppressors & oppressed, enslavers & enslaved, and there is no group who hasn’t both discriminated and been discriminated against, so why don’t we focus on ending these behaviors, rather than constantly choosing new groups whom we think deserve wrath despite the fact that our own ancestors were just as bad in their own places and cultures of origin?
We’re all equally human, and therefore equally fallible and equally Lovable. Realizing this fact, and making it the focus of our worldview & ethics, means we’re ready to step into adult roles & adult society as mature equals. Hardship is a normal part of life. Being a victim is a choice. Adults choose to be victorious over adversity by positively overcoming it through Love, concentration, education, and persistent hard work. That’s what the Irish found out, tens of thousands of whom were forcibly transported here to be sold as indentured slaves in the 17th Century after the British conquered Ireland and vanquished whole populations of natives to North America & other parts of the world. Despite that, this Land of Opportunity has produced several Irish presidents (The Irish claim President Obama is Irish, because of his last name, but that’s just Irish humor: he was only half European, and Obama is Kenyan. Wait: is he only half BIPOC?).
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hatred (anti-racism) cannot drive out hatred (racism), only Love can do that”. Dr. King was a Christian minister: why don’t we all look up to God By Whatever Name and begin with some humility & prayer?
Just askin’, with Love,
J Hedberg
p.s. What is an Asian Collective? Would we be told if we’re in one? It sounds like a made-up name, like Latinx, a pure Marxist false divisionary tactic, since we’re all human at the individual level, and that’s where our responsibilities and our choices dwell. All of us, as People.
Becket Harris • Feb 9, 2023 at 9:18 am
Interesting, I would love to see this. Especially if it could become well integrated with the center for students of color, women’s resource center, and LGBT resource center. Standing together is key here.