History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme! (End of the semester, Part 2)

One of the aphorisms I hate (and I tell my class this) is, history repeats itself. That's just lazy analysis. If history repeats itself, it's because we write it that way. But there is no denying similarities between certain events--and it's in those similarities that we can start the discussion of lessons (like the Philippine American War and the current wars). So instead I use Mark Twain's version: History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme (and Mark Twain is part of Filipino American history).

To illustrate this for the students (and see what they had learned by the last day of class), I showed them the trailer to the movie Avatar. I gave it a dramatic introduction by saying I had one last guest speaker for them and he came from the future! I saw smiles as they were watching. After the clip, I asked them to tell me how Avatar rhymes with Filipino American history. At least five hands shot up. They picked up on a lot: imperialism, exploitation of resources, equating native with inferior, slaughter. They did good.

The best part was when I told them that now when they see the movie, they'll think of my class. HaHa.

Tomorrow: Lessons (End of the semester, Part 3)

Post script (Avatar spoiler alert)
Now that I've seen the movie, I see a few more rhymes. The most obvious is that they teach the natives English and build schools. It is a familiar tale of exploitation and victimization.

This critique has been showing up on Facebook walls (http://io9.com/5422666/when-will-white-people-stop-making-movies-like-avatar). I agree with her assessment of the plot (white man to the rescue of hapless natives), though I wouldn't place blame where she does (white guilt--I think that's giving too much credit). Nevertheless, I liked the movie.

The Funnies (End of the semester, Part 1)

Last weekend, while it was snowing two feet, I shoveled…I mean, graded final exams and papers. Grading finals is mind-numbing, and sometimes students even write sentences. No really, it’s not that bad (most of the time). Sometimes their answers are funny, like the ones below (the bold is mine and my comments are in red).

On the I-Hotel:

• This hotel was targeted for demolition in order for business to gentrificate

On Filipino WWII vets:

• In February 18, 1946, U.S. Congress passes the supplemental surprise appropriation rescission act.

On the pioneer wave of Filipino immigrants:

• These migrants were essentially all male. So some were in transition?

• 1st wave of Filipino migration were basically Filipino pioneers known as the "Mango generation" And they were fruits. LOL

On nursing:

• An example of colonialism at its best is when the US trained Filipino women to become nurses. Well that’s one way to put it.

• One year of work as a nurse in the Philippines was equal to one month's work as a nurse in America. This is ludacris… 8-0 OR :,-( ?
  

Tomorrow Part 2: History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme.

A Commitment to SMH/WTF Diversity

A week ago the University of Maryland held a town hall to discuss its diversity plan, a sort of response to last year's unveiling of the strategic plan which had no mention of diversity. The Asian American Student Union leaders I know and others were not impressed.

This week, UMD fired Dr. Cordell Black, Assistant Provost of Equity and Diversity. Wow. WTF was the town hall for? Did they think it would soften the blow? Do they think this helps their credibility? As my students would say, SMH!* As Jay Leno says, politics is just like show business, except the people are ugly (double-entendre intended).

The reported reason for the firing is the current financial crisis. Riiight. When I was actively lobbying Congress for funding for health and human services, I learned that no matter how tight the budget, priority programs would always get funding. It's less a matter of how much is in the pot, and more a matter of what the funder thinks is a priority. Corporate welfare? Fund it. Food stamps? Nope. So the real reason for the firing is a lack of commitment to diversity. My job was to help the funder decide on her/his priorities, sometimes by being a squeaky wheel.

In tight budgets, those "special" programs that we fight for--ethnic studies, offices of diversity, offices of minority health--always seem to get targeted first. Some would argue that we should instead integrate ourselves more into the "mainstream" programs. That might work some places, and I think we should encourage it. But really all it does is just shift the battle to a smaller playground. It's still the same fight (and sometimes harder because it's hidden).

So tonight, the students are rallying and strategizing and squeaking.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/event.php?eid=168255853162&ref=ts
And it makes me happy to see 700+ multi-hued RSVPs. I don't know Dr. Black well, but I was on an immigration issues panel with him. I think he should stay.

*SMH = shaking my head

Things that model minorities do

Because I teach in the Asian American Studies department, usually the majority of my students are Asians. So if there ever was a laboratory to find out if Asian kids really are smart, model students, my classroom would be it (methodologists, just look the other way).

So today, as they sit there taking their midterm, I compile for you the evidence: these are the things that my model minorities have accomplished in just the past eight weeks. Be proud...


1 - Decide you want to take my course a month into the semester.

2 - Wait until the night before the midterm to officially register. (Most of my reading is on an electronic blackboard accessible only to registered students. And they turn in assignments that way too.)

3 - Figure out that I don't collect papers because you're supposed to upload them. (Yo, read the syllabus).

4 - Habitually leave class during the break.

5 - Then have the nerve to ask for extra credit.

6 - Make slides for your presentation but forget to turn them in.

7 - Make slides for your presentation--with 12 point font.

8 - Answer a question (on your slide) without understanding all the words in the question.

9 - Can't define self-determination. (Break it down. Self?)

10 - Ask me if you should put your name on all those sheets of loose leaf paper with all your answers on them. (Can you read directions?)


And my favorite excuse so far this semester:

**Professor, I accidently dropped my study guide into a puddle, so could I possibly have another copy to study with?**


Midterms collected. I hope they make me laugh more than cry.

Learning Lessons

I showed these videos in class yesterday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlZkL_0lZ1Q [9500 Liberty trailer]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuvFhB1k3x0 [invasion--watch 1:45-2:00]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7bnHb4wASM [9/11 and 7-11]

They debuted during my first semester of teaching. When I watch them now, I see California in the 1920s and 30s. I see the hatred and fear of manongs and Mexicans. But when my friends Annabel Park and Eric Byler first started posting them, I could not watch more than a few seconds. Too much hate and ignorance. I didn't want it on my laptop.

(For those not familiar with Virginia, Prince William County is home to Ikea and the largest outlet mall in the state. It attracts more tourists than the amusement parks. It also saw a housing boom in the last 20 years and attracted all the people needed to build them.)

But, you know, it's a privilege to be able to turn the hate on and off at my convenience. A year later, I was looking at my lesson plan for Carlos Bulosan's America is in the Heart and decided that showing these videos would help put my students in that time period--and unexpectedly bring the book to the present. My students, like the manongs, wouldn't be able to just turn it off.

I've become more transparent about the lessons that Fil-Am history teaches me. When I started, I felt the need to stay close to the facts, offer a few well-supported interpretations, and let the students draw their own conclusions. The problem, though, is that the students don't draw any.

It's not their fault. A lot of them don't have the life experiences (jobs, racism, poverty, involvement in politics) to connect personally to the material. Or if they do, they've "othered" it as an exception or thing of the past: the world is better now. I find students who have taken a year or two off connect more readily.

Also, I think the most powerful disincentive to learning is the need for testing and grading. The students really just want to make a connection between my slides and my exam questions.

Finally, history is not taught as lesson. Most students experience history as a recitation of facts and figures. To include "lessons that history should teach us" is to invite accusations of imposing my values on others.

Oh well.

I've decided it's not an imposition. I'm showing how I think Fil-Am history is relevant. They're adults and I'm not holding them responsible for parroting my views. A lot of students reflexively react with that tired adage, "history repeats itself." I don't believe that. Sounds like an excuse to do nothing. History repeats itself because we write it that way. How about we write it differently? Ultimately, the people of Prince William County neutered the anti-immigrant statute (but all sides paid heavily).

I felt for my students as they watched. I gave myself a year. Here I was making them squirm in their chairs. I watched their faces: confused, disgusted, awed. Some of them laughed. That took me aback. But to them, the testimony was just so ignorant or unbelievable that it seemed like caricature (there goes that othering again). I assured them it was real.


ps--congrats Annabel and Eric on a great premiere.

Benevolent Assimilation: From Thriller to Born in the USA

They turned off the lights and cued the YouTube video of Thriller (the real video, not the Cebu prison version). My Filipina dance major and her kababayans (teammates) started doing the zombie dance.

For real? The quiet Viet and Korean kids are dancing in my classroom? In front of 32 other students? How cool is that!

Then from outside the classroom, my Ethiopian student barges in dressed as Uncle Sam, white cotton balls taped onto his black face. "What are you doing? Nonononono," he says. "This is what you should be dancing to." Cue Bruce Springsteen, Born in the USA. They start dancing, but it's still too funky so Uncle Sam corrects them into an air guitar move instead. But nicely, cuz you know this assimilation is benevolent. Viet and Kim look confused. Dance major is pissed. End skit. APPLAUSE!

I think I'll give them an "A" for that.

Yesterday's class was devoted to presentations on the Forbidden Book: The Philippine-American War in Political Cartoons. The cartoons reveal how superior white men thought of themselves in relation to Filipinos (and all non-WASPs). "Benevolent Assimilation" was President McKinley's explanation for what the US was going to do for (to) the Philippines.

I had divided the class into 9 barangays (teams) two weeks ago and assigned each group a chapter. Their assignment was to pick a cartoon, act it out and then explain it. This group's inspiration was the cartoon above of Uncle Sam and Aguinaldo (drawn as the little black girl).

And you know, this great exercise comes from the Pin@y Educational Partnerships (PEP) (http://phoenixpublishinghouseintl.com/pep_book.html --I'm eagerly awaiting Volume II, Allyson). I'm so glad to have this resource. The other groups were pretty creative and had fun with it. One even had a Kanye West interruption: "Amma give you back the mic but you know America has the best flag" (or something like that).

I was expecting some groans when I told them their assignment and some sheepishness during the skits, but they seemed to take to it. Really, I would never think up an exercise like this so thanks PEP!

Obviously, Thriller still lives on. In Cebu. Prison. Okay end metaphor.

Furlough

I got an unpleasant surprise last semester when I found out that the university-wide furlough plan applied to me because I was teaching two courses. It amounted to a reduction in pay for one paycheck--not a deduction, just a reduced gross. I'm an adjunct professor. My pay is already gross.

I'm only teaching one class this semester, so I think I'm safe, but I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. How does someone whose only responsibility is to teach take a furlough day? I see a canceled class or two...

From the UMD president:

Under the plan Graduate Assistants, Contingent-I and student employees, employees paid to teach by the course, employees on H-1B visa status, employees with 100% contract and grant funded status on 9/15/09 and some other categories noted in the plan will take zero (0) furlough days.

All other employees, independent of salary source and percent of employment, must take a number of furlough days based on annual compensation. Employees earning $29,999 and under annually are assigned two days. Those earning between $30,000 and $49,999 will take three (3) furlough days; between $50,000 and $69,999 will take four (4) days; between $70,000 and $89,999 will take five (5) days; between $90,000 and $114,999 will take six (6) days; between $115,000 and $139,999 will take seven (7) days; between $140,000 and $169,999 will take eight (8) days; between $170,000 and $199,999 will take nine (9) days; and $200,000 and above will take ten (10) days.

This is worse than last year. Good thing I have another job.

Hero Haikus

A 2.5 hour class from 5 to 7:30 requires some creativity to keep the students awake and my mouth from going dry. Today it was the first 30 minutes of the Jose Rizal movie and... HERO HAIKUS! Plus I had them do it in teams (called barangays, thanks PEP).

Lapu Lapu
He killed Magellan
Led resistance against Spain (my commentary: not really, that's revolutionary propaganda)
and wore a loincloth

Jose Rizal
Jose Rizal wow!
What a guy, freedom fighter
For Filipinos

Inspired to write
For the love of his country
Sacrificed his life

Lived as a hero
Rizal led nonviolently
Died as a martyr

Andres Bonifacio
Rizal follower
Founder of Katipunan
Led rebellion

I forgot to add the list of sheroes to their reading so gotta add it now.

Class Census
So my roster is finally set. I managed to scare away 10 students in the last two weeks but they were mostly replaced so I have a total of 39 students. Good number. It's a pretty diverse class--and not just racially. The trend of fewer and fewer Filipinos continues with 11 (I'll write about what this might mean later). There are 13 other Asians so the class is majority Asian. There's one African (Ethiopian), African American, American Indian, and Middle Easterner; 3 Latinos and the rest white.

Most of them found out about the class from the online catalog (the class fills their Core Diversity requirement and Social/Political History requirement). Only 2 have ever taken an Asian American studies course. About half are science and engineering majors. And one of the Filipinas is a dance major! I'm bummed the other dance major dropped. He was Asian too.

There are 21 men, and 8 students over 21. There are only 3 freshmen and 4 seniors. The average GPA is 3.03, which is the highest of any class I've taught. We'll see if it's a difference that makes a difference.

Three Cigarettes in an Ashtray

2am - Just got back from my SECOND trip to UMD today. I was hunting for a pic to put in this post when I realized: I left my USB drive in my classroom computer!!! FAIL! I live in Arlington, a 50-mile round trip over 2 rivers, 4 highways and many lights. EPIC FAIL! It's after midnight. What comes after EPIC? Oh no, my key card works but the door is deadbolted...EPIC EPIC EPIC FAI...then I got lucky. Two students said the computer lab entrance should work. Success! My key card worked, I went up to the classroom and there was my USB drive.

I didn't even have to use it. I had uploaded my presentation to blackboard on Sunday. I did this once last semester too (and then I didn't realize it til the next afternoon). Lesson relearned. It was only after I left that I thought, isn't it kinda early for students to be pulling late-nights in the computer lab?

Anyway my first trip to UMD today was more fun. Driving in, this song came up on my iPod. It's one of my all-time-favorite k.d. lang songs, originally sung by Patsy Cline (maybe I should get into country music programming). And being that I was on the way to teach class, I started thinking about how the song relates to the Philippine Revolution/Spanish American War/Philippine American War. Then I decided, I'll make that their homework for next week. To make sure they read, I make them write a 500-word reflection each week. I give them prompts--words, quotations, concepts--to wrap their reflections around (and to keep them from mindless summarizing). This song just became one of the prompts they can choose from. See, this is why listen to music in the car instead of NPR.

I pulled up the video on youtube when I got to class, played it for them and said: so there are three characters in the song: my love, I, and the stranger that came along. In the drama of these wars, who is my love, I and the stranger? Let's see what they come up with. I have my ideas. What do you think? The lyrics are below.

So four students dropped (including one of the Filipino Cultural Association officers who I was looking forward to having, boo) and four students took their places so I still have 40. They have until Monday to solidify their schedule. Four people were absent today so maybe I'll end up with a smaller class. What's up with the fours? Isn't that an unlucky number?

Having a TA is nice. She did my copying so I didn't have to come early, took roll and best of all, she made my slides look beauteous! (It's a word--I looked it up). The handout was a census form and survey so now she gets to tally them for me. Yay!

But I'm the one who has to remember to take my USB drive out of the computer!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sbum19PoYRw

Two cigarettes in an ashtray,
My love and I in a small cafe.
Then a stranger came along,
And everything went wrong.
Now there's three cigarettes in the ashtray.

I watched her take him from me,
And his love is no longer my own.
Now they are gone, and I sit alone,
And watch one cigarette burn away.

Gratuitous Applause

Today was the first day of class. This semester I'm teaching Filipino American history. Just one class--and I was definitely better prepared for it today than I was last year when I had a second class on a different topic thrown at me (which I willingly caught) two weeks before classes started.

So this class goes from Magellan to Marcos, but really they're just weak bookends to the burgeoning story in between. I started out with an homage to Cory Aquino. I showed the first four minutes of this clip, up to her proclaiming that "I have returned as the president of a free people." It's from her speech before the U.S. Congress in September 1986.

http://www.youtube.com/user/NinoyAquinoTV#play/user/D76CFC30F40BCB55/0/WX9ysynaIq0

"What did you see?" I asked the class. "Gratuitous applause." "A warm welcome." "Congratulations."

Then I flashed back 88 years to the story of the U.S. invasion of the Philippines, to another proclamation of freedom by another revolutionary leader and Philippine president, Emilio Aguinaldo. Using a cartoon adaptation of the history as written by Howard Zinn, I asked three students to volunteer to do a dramatic reading of the story (It's called A People's History of American Empire. You can look it up on Google Books but the preview blocks out all the drawings, but here is a sample).



The contrast is not subtle. A warm welcome versus a deceitful arm around the shoulder. Sincere (maybe even guilty) congratulations versus a congratulations with a glint in the eye. Gratuitous applause versus gratuitous violence.

"This is American History" read the last slide. That is an homage to Ronald Takaki who asked us to challenge the Master Narrative of American History, that our country was settled by Europeans and that Americans are white.

As usual this idea, to add the Cory Aquino video, came to me last night, meaning I get some good ideas at the last "minute." Thanks to those of you who posted videos after Cory died. You were my source.

So the class went well. Everybody came! All 40 students on my roster and 1 person from the waitlist showed up! That's never happened before. And the average GPA in the class is a 3.08! Normally it's around 2.8. This should be an interesting semester. Let's see if the syllabus scares anyone away.

Prep time

7 hours putting a script together for a dramatic reading for today's Asian American Sexualities class (putting together snippets of their writing, chosen by my TA; so, their words, my structure). 30/40 show up. everybody gets a part. over in 30 minutes. but funny, poignant, smiling faces. applause. it worked.

No reservations, no regrets - I don't hate that I didn't know then what I know now

My class seems quite nonjudgmental and forgiving about the diversity of Filipino ethnic performance (or nonperformance).

Oh, please! C'mon, give me some hate. Haven't I created a safe environment to share your honest thoughts?

Huh?

Okay, so at the beginning of the semester I asked everyone to write an essay about themselves and answer the question (no matter what their race) what they think it means to be Filipino American. Last night, I literally cut out sentences from their essays and randomly stuffed them into five envelopes. Today I divided the class into five groups, gave each an envelope and asked them to do a thematic analysis of the contents.

But before dividing the group up, I showed clips from Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations Philippines episode. I chose clips that showed the diverse influences we have, and Augusto and his identity crisis. In between I asked the group for their reactions and a few pointed questions. Two of the students (both Filipino) saw it when it aired. They both thought it was a fair representation of the diversity of food, for an hour-long show.

When I asked the group to describe to me what authentic Filipino food is, most of them responded with a variation of "it depends." I probably conditioned that response so I asked it another way: if you ate at a Filipino restaurant, what would make you give it a good rating? One student volunteered that he does expect a certain saltiness, reminiscent of his mother's cooking. Then I showed the clip where one (probably uncharacteristically well-stocked) cook explained the commonality of sourness. I skipped over the clip that proclaimed the commonality to be bitterness. So even in defining what's common, we have to allow for diversity: salty, sour and bitter.

Then I showed Augusto's audition tape, his meeting up with Bourdain in Cebu where he explains his detachment from being Filipino, and Bourdain's disappointment with Augusto's inability to be a guide. Three students quickly raised their hands:

"Bourdain is expecting too much. The kid grew up in NY. Culture does not stay with you like skin color. I spent a week with relatives in Germany and I couldn't explain the cuisine. Eating is not the same as knowing the meaning." I wasn't expecting these insights.

But those three students were not Filipino, so I asked the Filipino students: what do you think? Is this hitting close to home? Chuckles. Most of them are Augusto. One Cebuana said that her family is just like what they showed: quiet. And besides a film crew can be intimidating. Another said that when he went home, they didn't have a parade for him. They identified with feeling like an outsider in the Philippines, with feeling detached from "Filipino."

And when I pressed, they recognized the pressure of Bourdain's expectation, however unrealistic. Relatives, friends and strangers, Filipino and not, often expect us to know the culture we came from, as if culture was innate or inherited. And we're expected to retrieve it easily, as if we just temporarily misplaced it. We all agreed, as Bourdain said, that no matter how much we read, eat, try and (re)learn the language, we can never go home.

So then the group activity started. Here are just a few of the responses that they were categorizing (paraphrased, I had about 90 clippings, 18 per group).

A Filipino American is...
- Filipino first.
- an American. Filipino is just a description of root and origin.
- are from close knit families and groups.
- something I have only recently become proud of.
- is proud and connected to his roots.
- must first be active in taking part in cultural practices to earn the right to be labeled as such.
- short, brown, loud, kind, driven, hard working, funny, hospitable [these got categorized under the theme of stereotype].

After all was said and done, they were quite willing to accept the diversity of opinions on what it means to be Filipino American. I liked the apparent dichotomies in the responses, so I tested them: So Augusto was not Filipino American until he got interested in his culture? Yes, he was--they were adamant--yes he is. He wasn't self-aware, but that doesn't mean he's not Filipino American. I don't get to tell him he's not Filipino.

Oh, please! C'mon, give me some hate. Haven't I created a safe environment to share your honest thoughts?

Seriously, though, I'm glad they are so nonjudgmental. But I'll have other opportunities to hit them in the gut with the reading that's coming up. I'm going for affective learning (heart) as well as intellectual.

One comment that I recognized as my own judgmental bias was this:

- just being the child of Filipino immigrants may qualify you, but if you aren't divesting [I think she meant investing] a certain amount interest into wanting to learn moare about your culture, your family, or the struggles that the Filipino community faces, then what's the point?

This is me at times because, as an activist, I have often wondered, why am I the only Filipino in this room full of Asians fighting for xxx issue? The aunties put on their banquets and uncles proclaim a vague pride in being Filipino, but where are they when it matters?

I know, though, that the criticism is unfair. I judge from a position of privilege--educated, English-speaking, assimilated--and fortunate to have had my consciousness raised and get paid for it. I am Augusto, more so than my students, because I was probably the same age as him when I decided to wrestle with identity (and I don't blame my parents cuz they were as colonized as I was whitewashed). I don't hate that I didn't know then what I know now.

And now I have a unique opportunity to teach a class on Filipino American activism.

This excerpt best exemplifies the class's inclusiveness:

To me, the definition of being Filipino American is as flexible a term as the people who embody it. There is no qualification to being Fil-Am--you don't need to know Tagalog, you don't need to eat "our food." The more Americans we can also call Filipino the better.

There is no right or wrong answer, the kids want to say (just like in my other class). Okay, I said, I can accept that. But there are consequences. Foreshadowing...

Have a good spring break!

Community organizers

So here is my OMG from today's class:

OMG they don't know why or how "community organizer" became such a loaded term! Ok, one person knew that Obama considered himself a community organizer. But no one remembered that Sarah Palin disparaged them. Where were they?!?!?! Just 5 months ago, right? Sheltered? Inattentive? Selective? Or maybe Palin's comment didn't have that much play except among those of us who got offended. Hmmmm.

But today was a good class. We discussed "Philip Vera Cruz: A Personal History..." with questions like these:

• Let’s call Philip Vera Cruz a community organizer. A loaded term, I know. So let’s reload it. How do you think Philip Vera Cruz would define “community organizer”? Think in terms of knowledge, qualities, skills and other factors that you think are important.

I also asked about his lessons in leadership and coalition building and participation. Most importantly, I threw all sorts of current events into the mix: harassment of day laborers, "illegal immigrants," the stimulus package, majority rules, bi-partisan "compromise", driving while brown. What does Philip Vera Cruz's personal history have to tell us about these issues? Got a lot of participation! And my favorite, we got some disagreement and surfaced some prejudice. Teachable moments! Yeah!

Diana Ross

I came out to my Asian American Sexualities class today (3rd meeting). I'm never sure how to do it (oblique reference? or ellen-level declarative?) and it's always a bit unnerving. And as usual with this generation, the class is nonplussed. Next subject.

Of course, I don't think my students are representative of the school. The title of the course, I'm sure, selects for a certain set of students.

Today was declarative, minus ellen's elan.

History live!

There's nothing like hearing history from the history makers themselves. Today in class I was lucky to have the two fierce pinays whose activism created Asian American Studies at UMD, Christina and Angela Lagdameo. If I can figure out how to link to the Washington Post article about them (Aug 31, 2000), I'll post it. And then Juanita Tamayo Lott came by too, so that we could also hear about her experience in the 1968 student strike at SF state. Hearing them speak reminds me of how much history does not capture. The passion, the enthusiasm, the moment, and fascinating tidbits get freeze-dried and abstracted for our textbooks. Of course we should still clamor for inclusion in those books. But never let books be the only tool for learning.

My course is titled (not by me) Filipino American History and Biography. But today it dawned on me (or maybe I'm just admitting) that the more appropriate title is Filipino American Activism.

We hear over and again about the Asian communities' lack of activism and interest in engaging politically. About our meekness and desire to not rock the boat. And I hear this mostly from other Asians. But maybe that's the narrative we've been fed to keep us down (and that we believe it means we've internalized the racism it represents). Maybe it's that we don't know where to look for the activists, because Asian American studies isn't around in enough places to raise our consciousness about how much we've actually done. And because people like me often do complain, why aren't we being louder? Where are we (on x issue)?

We need to hear more stories about ourselves to repudiate, complicate and diversify this portrait of the non-activist Asian American. And in recognition of my very diverse class, I should clarify that "we" and "ourselves" is not just Filipinos or Asians. My class will leave knowing who the activists are.

Butterfly kisses and consequences

Today in my Asian American Sexualities class, I had the students share their first writing assignment with each other in small groups, a 1-page paper entitled, "AAPI Sexualities are..." Their responses were many and varied, and that was the point. It's the first week of class and I'm trying to assess what they know and think coming in, and to show them each other's perspectives.

And to let them sit there in that ambiguity. I told them that I would rarely try to push our conversations toward convergence or agreement. I value the ability to entertain a thought without accepting it (Aristotle). Good thing I have a high tolerance for ambiguity.

At the end, one student remarked, "Well, there are no right or wrong answers." To which I replied, "True, but there are answers with consequences, and we'll be learning about how severe some of them can be."


Somewhere in the sharing, there was occasion to bring up the annual fertility festival in Japan (http://www.wordpress.tokyotimes.org/?p=2088) which I called the penis festival. They got a kick out of hearing about such a thing. But as I was driving home, I thought to myself, if it's a fertility festival, and couples go for good luck, why is the phallus the only symbol for fertility? I'll ask them next class. Shout out to my sistas in the Pukengkeng Liberation Front.

Immediacy

so my unwritten (until now) goal is to blog within the first few hours after class...to capture my reactions before they become reflections and resolutions. i met that with the last entry. reading it now, i see that i captured the incident that i need at the beginning of every semester that reminds me to adjust my expectations. i'm still flummoxed that no more than 2 or 3 students vaguely recognized the hooded prisoner. and i'm wondering if i could really appreciate what reagan meant since i was only in college at the time.

but on the point of whether a student can get it, well it only takes one to make me feel good. this is what made me feel good at the end of last semester:

"The International Hotel story was one that touched me greatly. I had never heard about the struggle that Filipino Americans faced. What was even more heart wrenching to me was it was not that long ago, in fact my parents were both alive at this time. What happened to the Filipino Americans living in the International Hotel at this time was monstrous and disgusting."

this excerpt, a response to a final exam question, reminded me why I teach Filipino American studies--and it's not about academics. the film, the Fall of the I-Hotel--as dated and slow-paced as it is (probably cuz I've seen it a dozen times)--is still worth showing. when i told the student how this made me feel, he thanked me for a class that taught him some truly valuable lessons.

~:'-)

Abu Ghraib has no meaning

OMG they did not recognize this image. It was only 6 years ago (Spring 2003)! Are they really so sheltered? So unaware? But okay, they were teenagers. Maybe their parents kept them from seeing the images from Abu Ghraib.

Still it makes me wonder how to teach the meaning of this and other events. I teach from a place of experience, of having events in the real world propel me to look for meaning. Of working with others to "sense-make", and in turn, to create change.

That's what I, and I'm sure other ethnic-studies professors, bring to teaching. And yet, what is this image to my students? I can express myself passionately, I can tell them the meaning, but will they feel it? Will they get it? Will it make them feel connected to other's suffering? Will it propel them to action, or at least to look for meaning, too? So what is the whole exercise of ethnic studies about, anyway?

Anyway, this isn't a soul-searching moment that I'm expressing. Just a reaction to my second day of class. I've got 38 students, though today only 23 showed up because of snow. I asked if anyone knew who Maj Gen Antonio Taguba is. As expected, not many knew. I pulled up this photo, thinking I would then make a point about how only parts of a story get embedded in the public psyche, and that we often forget really important people. But their psyche was empty. Al laa.

I got a similar shock when I first started teaching and no one could tell me what People Power was. It had meaning for me when it happened because I was a whitewashed 2nd year college student with a politically connected roommate. So even though I didn't really want to care, he kept the TV on the story and I, like many others, was gripped by the nuns kneeling in front of the tanks. It was one of my consciousness raising moments. But most of my students weren't even born yet. That really woke me up.

But 2003?!?!