Recent thoughts on Takaki

It's so strange to read Takaki sometimes. Maybe I've just been ignorant for a good part of my life or maybe I just haven't been exposed to Asian American history and the hardships these people faced and still face today.

Each time I read Takaki I find myself getting more and more angered and disturbed and hurt by what people, namely whites, did to Asians as they tried to immigrate and settle here. In the recent chapter, "Forgotten Filipinos," the quotation, "Only whites are allowed in this neighborhood, (pg. 325) was particularly interesting to me. It's hard to read a quote like that and not automatically think about the civil rights movement. That's just what we were taught: discrimination was white vs. black. I know we've talked about the fact that most of us did not learn Asian American history in classes and school, but it's hitting me harder now as we get further into the class.

Growing up in Virginia, we always learned about Virginia history and therefore our focus was usually on European colonization and Native Americans in our region. When we studied world history, we did touch on the Asian culture, but studied the major dynasties of China and the like. Of course we did learn other things, not just major dates or people, but I don't think we ever really learned any details about Asian American events. I recently found this website on google (http://web.mit.edu/21h.153j/www/chrono.html) which had all of these critical events in Asian American history. Whether or not it was reliable or not could be investigated, but it did have a HUGE list of years and important events for Asian Americans. It makes me think, "hey why didn't we learn some of these at least?!?"

I sometimes wonder why we don't learn things or do things. For example, why are my friends predominantly white? Is that because I grew up with white kids? Or is it because deep down, I don't feel connected with other races? That's a tough question to answer or even think about. It makes you feel bad... Why are there fewer inter-racial couples? Is that because of our parents bias' or because more people like people who look more like them...or at least gravitate towards their "own"? Do we not learn about Asian American history on the East coast because there are fewer Asian Americans and we just really really really love Jamestown? Or is it something else?

It's hard to think about these things sometimes. Especially when you don't want to be in the wrong...we always want to think we're so liberal or so accepting, just like in some of the plays we've read. It's hard to consider the other side sometimes. It's hard to think that maybe you're wrong and you're something else you never thought you could ever be.

I don't worry too much, though. I do have hope that gradually we will blend (in a good way). I have hope that this class will allow for more awareness at the very very least to ourselves, our history and the history of others. We are the lucky ones and I'm excited to give others the opportunity to experience what we are living through in our class.