Coalition for the Revitalization of Asian American Studies at Hunter College “CRAASH”
By Dyske March 9th, 2008
That’s a pretty good acronym, and the name says it all. Here’s the website that explains the sad situation at Hunter College in New York City.
I actually have no idea what “Asian American Studies” are. My guess would be that you study the history of Asians in America. Well, the fact that I don’t even know what “Asian American Studies” are, is a good reason why we need such programs at colleges like Hunter.
Me says:
March 11th, 2008 at 2:24 pmHunter College has a really great professor who is a nationally renowned expert named Peter Kwong. He has written several books on the Chinese American experience along with being a featured on a PBS documentary. I took his class and he was awesome. It was one of the best classes I ever took. The class takes you for a ride from the Toishan farmlands in China to coming to America for the Gold Rush to the development of Chinatowns to today’s suburbization. His perception and level of detail and his ability to make it all come together is truly remarkable. He dealt with the politics, the economics, any many other aspects of the Chinese diaspora. Read his books on Chinatown, they are simply fantastic.
Katy says:
April 30th, 2008 at 8:47 amNot sure where else to leave this comment, but Cognitive Daily has an interesting article about a study which reveals that with a little training, we can recognize faces of other races just as easily as those of our own race:
http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2008/04/with_a_little_training_we_can.php#
A little unrelated to the original allooksame concept, but I’m sure someone around here will find this interesting anyway.
Spooky says:
May 4th, 2008 at 2:45 pmThe fact that the person who wrote this post doesn’t even know what Asian American Studies shows the lack of educational background that non-Asians and even Asians in America have on Asian American people and it’s history.
Asians have been a great part of America. They just appear “unheard” of because many Asian generations have kept silent. This silence has left a burn on American history, because it makes it seem as if there IS no big significance of Asian Americans here.
Spread the word. Think about it. How much do you actually know about Asian American studies? Have you heard about Vincent Chin? Do you know about any Asian politicians that have made great strides? Should you know about them? The answer is yes, you should know about them, as much as you know about great African-Americans such as MLK Jr, and others.
America is a nation of great hybridity multi-culturalism. We should not be so absent-minded and continue to suppress our ideas, thoughts, feelings, and history. As an Asian-American, I can’t sit around and feel right about not knowing more about AA studies. There is a great deal to be learned, and only through education, and knowledge can we all become better people and have a greater understanding of American citizenship.
Jack says:
May 12th, 2008 at 6:51 pmAsian American studies classes can either be informative and a good companion to Asian studies classes, or they can serve as the backdrop for insanely left-wing professors’ rants that pervert and misunderstand the Civil Rights Movement, as it relates to both black and Asian Americans. I’ve had professors who teach Asian American studies in a very intelligent way, and I enjoyed those classes very much. However, I also had one professor who was a total imbecile who said many absurd things. For instance, instead of talking about the troubles that Korean Americans faced during the 1992 Los Angeles riots, he elected to launch into an attack on President Reagan, claiming that he had cheated blacks out of their rights and somehow CAUSED them to destroy Koreans’ stores during the riots. This is the kind of nonsensical psychobabble and ultra-left-wing idiocy that doesn’t do any immigrant group any favors, not to mention the fact that it makes no sense and defies logic. In other words, in this man’s mind, the white world is on a non-stop mission to destroy all minorities, and since blacks are a minority, they can’t possibly be guilty of destroying Koreans’ stores. A true lack of racism means that people are judged by their actions, and one doesn’t say “Blacks can do whatever they want because they’re oppressed”. If Hispanics have it hard in the United States, does that mean they can go destroy Indian people’s lives and get away with blaming “the man”? This is the kind of stupidity one has to deal with in today’s academic world. This type of thinking ignores the idea of being responsible for one’s actions, which is a very dangerous notion. This professor of mine should go ask the Koreans whose stores and lives were destroyed about the innocence of the lower-class blacks who rioted during April of 1992, instead of being lazy and stating his nonsensical views. The tragedy of the Los Angeles Riots was scarily similar to that of blacks burning down Jewish shops three decades before, and I wouldn’t be surprised if something like this happens to Indian Americans or Arab Americans. There’s a difference between peaceful, non-violent political protests, as conducted by Marting Luther King Jr., and saying it’s okay to be a lawless animal who goes around stealing and destroying things.
Cats says:
June 19th, 2008 at 5:32 pmWait. Isn’t “Asian-American Studies” just another descriptor for ‘math’??
Just kidding. But this thread needed a short comment.
Jessie says:
December 4th, 2008 at 11:39 pmlol uhm, actually, it’s really not– it’s as far from math as you can go (it’s called humanities).