About 75 students crammed into 3 Rockefeller Center Friday evening to discuss a "Bear Bones" cartoon and also to address the issue of a dean for Asian and Asian-American students.
During the first part of the forum, audience members addressed questions to David Berenson '99, author of the "Bear Bones" cartoon strip that appears daily in The Dartmouth.
Many in the audience were angry with the strip from last Tuesday Jan. 14 and accused the cartoon of perpetuating stereotypes of Asian-Americans.
The discussion was organized by the Korean American Students Association, with the support of the Dartmouth Asian Organization.
Debating the cartoon
Berenson apologized for offending members of the Dartmouth community and defended his cartoon's intent. The cartoon's "message was not clear," he said. "My intent was not to belittle Asians, and if I did, I'm sorry."
Berenson said he drew the cartoon in response to a letter from Frank Aum '97 published in The Dartmouth last Monday Jan 13. The letter says Berenson portrays "Asians as asexual, GPA-crazy nerds."
"For those people who think racism doesn't exist, here's another clear example of sheer ignorance that slips right under our noses, published daily in the campus newspaper," it states.
The Jan. 14 cartoon features Berenson's Asian character removing all his clothing and glasses, disheveling his hair and then asking, "What stereotype are you going to use now?" A box over the character's groin states: "A small one?"
At Friday's forum, Berenson said his intent was to show that even when the character tries to strip himself of all that could be perceived as stereotypical and asks "What can you stereotype if it is all discarded?" there is still always something that people will use to stereotype him.
Berenson said he deliberately uses stereotypes in his cartoon as satire. But he said he makes a conscious effort to dispel stereotypes in his cartoon.
"If one character says something ignorant, the other will correct it," he said.
Berenson said he thinks students at Dartmouth are intelligent enough to read his cartoon and see it is a satire on stereotypes.
"Cartoons are by their very nature ... a distorted mirror by which we can look at images of ourselves and laugh," Berenson said.
But Aum said he thinks Berenson is "giving people on campus too much credit."
Audience member Margaret Chu '98 said when Berenson draws his cartoons he assumes his readers come from "diverse places and know the stereotypes." But she said for people with no preconceived notions, Berenson is "giving them stereotypes to follow."
At the forum, Aum said there are four common stereotypes of Asians portrayed in the media -- "the geeky male, the martial arts Kung Fu master, the submissive girl and the dragon lady."
He said when these are the only images people see of Asians, "the line between the stereotype and reality becomes blurred."
Aum said stereotypes that identify a group with one characteristic, such as portraying African-Americans as militant, are less damaging than stereotypes that take qualities away from a group, thus dehumanizing them.
"The 'geeky Asian' stereotype takes away emotions and makes them robots," Aum said.
History Professor Vernon Takeshita, who moderated the discussion, read a letter from The Dartmouth explaining the paper's decision to print the cartoon.
According to the letter, The Dartmouth would never print anything "racist or malicious," and it ran the cartoon because the editors believed it was intended as a "satire on stereotypes."
But several audience members said The Dartmouth should not print "Bear Bones."
One student said because mailed subscriptions to The Dartmouth are sent around the country, people may believe Dartmouth is a racist environment.
Sarah Cho '97 said since Berenson's cartoon is printed in The Dartmouth every day, he should recognize he is in a powerful position "to make people change the way they think."
"The media does affect the way people think and you can change that," she told Berenson.
The need for a dean?
The cartoon discussion was followed by a forum addressing the issue of a Dean for Asian and Asian-American students at Dartmouth, for which about 25 members of the original audience remained.
Steve Oh '98 and Paul Kim '99, KASA co-presidents, DAO vice president Melissa Koh '99 and Willy Wong '99 led the discussion.
Wong said a dean for Asian-American students is necessary because "during this crisis we had no one to go to."
Koh said a dean or an advisor would "facilitate our involvement and communication with the administration and be a source of strength and an advocate for us in the administration."
She said since there are so many different organizations for Asian-American students, a dean would increase Asian-American unity.
Director of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Mary Childers gave advice to students at the discussion on how to work with the administration to gain a dean or advisor.
"You can show your negative experiences, but you should also show the positive possibilities," Childers said.
She said students should emphasize to the administration that there is no Asian-American leadership in the community or on campus and that they should state the positive educational purposes of having an advisor.
"Sometimes people start by saying, 'At least give us a student intern,'" Childers said.
"That can happen fast, and it gives you continuity for a year and you will have someone to work with you and work for more," she said.
She said the position of Latino advisor at Dartmouth began as a student internship.
