As an Assistant Professor of English and American Studies and the Director of Asian Pacific American Studies, I would like to point out that Friday’s article (“Officials discuss Asian faculty diversity concerns,” 4/3/2009) propagates many stereotypes about Asian Pacific Americans (APA).
First, the article begins by discussing Sharon Hostler’s report on the “overrepresentation” of APA undergraduates. However, it is misleading to simply compare the percentage of APA undergradutes with the national APA population. A better indicator might be the APA population at other American Association of Universities institutions, where the University ranks 31 out of 58 and lags behind peer institutions including Harvard, Duke, Berkeley, and Michigan. This concern pits APAs against other minorities in a zero-sum game over diversity statistics, and harkens back to yellow peril anxieties of the early 1900s. If anything, we should celebrate that the APA undergraduate population at the University is so high, rising from only 0.76 percent in 1978.
Second, the article fails to distinguish between Asian internationals and APAs, which is important if we are discussing diversity in America. To conflate the two is to continue the xenophobia that stigmatizes APAs as “forever foreigners.”
Third, the comments attributed to Bill Harvey, vice president and chief officer for diversity and equity, regarding why APAs are not found in University administration perpetuates the model minority myth. There is no unitary Asian American culture dictating that APAs be passive and “prefer to take a more supportive role.” If anything, the culture that prevents more APAs from taking leadership roles is that of academia itself, which has generally not valued the recruitment and retention of APA faculty.
Finally, the idea that recruitment of scientists will increase APA representation does a disservice to the many APA scholars in the humanities and social sciences working on APA and non-APA topics. To recruit more of these faculty, the University will require a paradigm shift, valuing research on APA issues as much as research on Asia or non-APA minorities.
We should not trade in myths about APAs in order to support efforts to diversify the faculty. This article was an inauspicious beginning to Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.
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