From May 6 to 27, Baker-Berry Library hosted a multimedia exhibit as part of Dartmouth's celebration of Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month. Several students from the Office of Pluralism and Leadership and the Pan-Asian Council created displays so that viewers could see the wide range of experiences Asian-Americans have had on campus.
My contribution to the exhibit was a poster detailing the history of Asian-Americans at Dartmouth. I pored over old newspaper articles to explore the impact that past Asian-American students had on campus. I found a striking pattern in every five to ten years since the mid-1990s, students have banded together to petition the creation of an Asian-American studies program.
Most recently in May 2004, the Pan-Asian Council submitted an open letter urging the institution of an AAST program to the dean of the faculty. Several days later, Morna Ha '04 pushed the need for an Asian-American Studies minor in the Student Assembly, gaining the Assembly's statement of support. By mid-May, the initiative had collected 600 signatures calling for an institutional commitment to AAST. In total, 1,200 students signed the petition, which demonstrated that interest in an Asian-American studies program was not limited solely to those of Asian descent.
Despite the growing proportion of Asian-American students on campus, there are significantly fewer Asian-American courses in comparison to those regarding other cultures or ethnicities. For instance, the African and African-American studies program provides students with numerous courses that, according to the department website, focus on "cultural constructions and transformations of the African diaspora within a global context." There is, unfortunately, no such option for those hoping to learn about Asian-Americans, and even during the regular academic term, courses are limited.
Given that self-identified Asian-American students make up about the same proportion of the student body as self-identified Latino-American and African-American students combined, it is unreasonable that AAST still does not have an institutional footing at Dartmouth. Some opponents may argue that existing ethnocentric classes exist to shed light on historically oppressed minorities in the United States. However, this challenge lies on the assumption that Asians-Americans have not had a significant part in U.S. history and that Asian-Americans have not faced challenges of their own in American society.
Asian-Americans have also found themselves in an uncomfortable role as the lauded "Model Minority" in America's socio-racial matrix. The assumption that the pan-Asian community has successfully assimilated is countered by the fact that certain Asian communities have the lowest rates of English fluency and the highest poverty rates in the U.S. This downplays the institutional challenges that Asian-Americans face and is used to cast the responsibility upon minority groups for their own socioeconomic struggles or malaise. This directs attention away from more complex cultural and societal obstacles to an issue of race. Considering the complexities of racial dynamics, hot-button racial topics cannot be fully addressed without taking into account the Asian-American narrative.
Furthermore, as many Asian-Americans can trace their roots to countries that are either correctly or incorrectly perceived to pose a threat to U.S. dominance, there is a tendency to view Asian-Americans as "perpetual aliens" whose loyalty is suspect, a theme explored by Asian-American writers and scholars such as Lisa Lowe and Chang-Rae Lee. Specifically, as Asian countries continue to industrialize and modernize, the complicated relationship that the U.S. has with its Asian competitors may manifest unfairly through growing tensions against Asian-Americans.
Understanding must occur both within and outside of the Asian-American community in order to promote harmony within America's complicated socio-racial matrix. The absence of a formal AAST program at Dartmouth is not from lack of effort. Some Asian-American professors who initially supported its formation have since left the College for other institutions offering greater support, and the implementation of an AAST program is in a precarious position. Dartmouth's curriculum should catch up to those of other elite institutions by allowing students the option of learning about the complexities of the Asian-American label.
