Three offered courses are not acceptable By Ashwini Mate In the past two and a half years I have spent at Wesleyan, I have taken three courses that specifically addressed the subject matter concerning Asian American studies. Every year I look for additional courses to develop my education on this subject, and every year I face the same disappointment, that I have simply exhausted the courses available at Wesleyan. There is nothing further offered to enlighten me about the historical and literary circumstances that have instructed the political construction of the Asian American. Three courses. How can three courses range over the multifarious Asian Americans populations and their respective achievements? It was imported Chinese labor that laid down the tracks for the Central Pacific railroad, one of the first American transcontinental railroads that ushered in our industrial era. What about anti-Asian American legislation and violence? What about Japanese internment during WWII, The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, [other] various immigration legislation, and the history of Angel Island? What kinds of political constructions arose from these events? Are we to render all of this material invisible by excluding these courses from the curriculum? These issues have obvious relevance today, in terms of the backlash against South Asians following the tragedy of September 11. Three courses. Not enough. We need more courses, more teachers, and a more comprehensive curriculum that addresses the needs of students desiring to know more about Asian America. It has a complex and diverse history and social structure. It has been argued that East Asian studies is enough, but East Asian studies looks to a whole different history and culture than Asian American studies does. There needs to be more than just three courses. We need to breathe in an educational atmosphere that fully represents Asian Americans and well as other ethnicities. How else are we to combat the ignorance that created many of the issues surrounding those acts of violence and anti-Asian American legislation that I highlighted above? These issues are not in the past; they are very relevant today. It is the same ignorance that mistakes Arab Americans for South Asian Americans, in a blanket “Bomb the Towelheads” campaign (not that violence against true Arab Americans is in any way justifiable…that makes me just as sick). Education is the only, the best, remedy to ignorance, and ignorance is often the cause of violence. We need to bring Asian American studies to enlighten this school. Mate is a member of the class of 2003

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