In his Sept. 29 column, Philip Kurian misrepresents the experience of Asian Americans and disturbingly weakens the already tenuous efforts to improve race relations at Duke.
Kurian grossly oversimplified the disparate histories of Asian Americans when he stated that "there is some truth to the notion that Asian Americans are better educated and more successful than other Americans." He holds a sorely myopic view of Asian Americans.
Asian American is a socially constructed racial category that lumps together individuals of a multiplicity of identities and ethnicities. The title of "model minority" stereotypes all Asian Americans as academically and financially successful. However, we must realize this is a result of the H-1B Visa which sought out immigrant professionals and technicians beginning in the 1980s. The converse to model minority migration is the resettlement of thousands of Vietnamese, Cambodian, Hmong and Laotian refugees, creating a population of low-income Asian Americans concentrated in urban and rural areas of the U.S.
We find that it is precisely this misinformation that indicates the need for an ethnic studies curriculum in the University. Duke currently has no Asian American Studies major, department or developed curriculum.
It is ironic that Kurian delegitimizes the need for ethnic studies programs, especially in a higher institution of learning. We are personally disappointed that Kurian, a student leader, has expended his energy and time highlighting differences rather than similarities between the experiences of racial groups. He has broken the fragile bonds between racial groups by comparing degrees of suffering, oppression and legitimacy in order to pit minority groups against one another.
If Kurian's solution to race relations involves sitting at the same table and having sustained interaction, what good does it do to sit at a table if it has already been predetermined who should sit at the head and who should be relegated to the periphery?
Aileen Shiue
Trinity '05
Nancy Lee
Trinity '04
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