Wu Brings a Subtler Palette to Discussion of Race
At a 'Propitious Moment' for Coalition-Building

Frank Wu, an authority on the history of civil-rights law and the Asian-American experience, will speak at Bryn Mawr on Tuesday, March 6, at 7:30 p.m. in Thomas Great Hall. Wu will discuss his book Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White. His presentation, sponsored by the Office of Intercultural Affairs, is free and open to the public.

Wu, who is now the dean of the law school of Wayne State University in Detroit, spent nine years on the law faculty of Howard University and has taught at Columbia and Stanford Universities and the University of Michigan. The co-author of Race, Rights and Reparation: Law and the Japanese American Internment, he is a frequent contributor to such periodicals as the Washington Post, Detroit Free Press, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Chronicle of Higher Education, Legal Times and Asian Week.

Bryn Mawr's Dean of Intercultural Affairs Christopher MacDonald-Dennis says he has long admired Wu's thoughtful approach to coalition-building among communities of color. Wu's message, he says, is particularly resonant at Bryn Mawr this semester, during which student activists have succeeded in increasing awareness of the impact racial stereotyping and discrimination have on Asians.

Early in the semester, Asian students learned of a planned appearance on campus by a band whose name, "Ching Chong Song," incorporated a racial slur often aimed at Asians. Protest from the Asian Students Association, supported by members of other affinity groups on campus, led the concert organizer to cancel the show. A few weeks later, after similar protests by Asian students at New York University, the band changed its name.

"I am very proud of our students; they really made a difference," MacDonald-Dennis says. "But the incident demonstrated that there's a lack of understanding of what racism against Asians looks like."

Assistant Director of Intercultural Affairs Peaches Valdes '99 agrees. "Race is often perceived to be a white-black issue," she says. "Frank Wu discusses other aspects of the issue that complicate our understanding of race. He talks about the long history of legal discrimination against Asians in the United States, which is unfamiliar to many Americans, but he also talks about the diversity of immigration histories among Asian communities in America and the negative effects of the 'model minority' stereotype — the notion that Asians exemplify successful assimilation to mainstream American culture through hard work and talent."

Says MacDonald-Dennis, "The 'model minority' stereotype has often been used as a wedge to divide communities of color, and we need to think about that and resist it. Student organizations for people of color often concentrate on each group's relationship to white people and don't spend much energy considering their relationship to each other. But the Ching Chong Song incident was an 'aha' moment. It helped communities of color on campus recognize that even though our experiences are not identical, we share a lot and have a lot to gain by collaborating with each other. It is a propitious moment for coalition-building."

<Back to Bryn Mawr Now 3/1/2007

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