On Tuesday, September 27, on my way to class, a flyer caught my eye and brought me to an immediate halt. The International Club was hosting a bake sale. What stopped me was not the words "Bake Sale" or "Hungry?" but rather, the image chosen to promote this event: a stereotypical caricature of a chubby, slit-eyed Asian child smiling dumbly while eating watermelon. This image made me so mad I ripped it down, went to class, and then spent the rest of the day tracking down various community and administrative leaders to explain my anger.
While many see this caricature as a harmless drawing of a kid eating delicious watermelon, others, like me, are reminded of an entire history of cartoons circulated and published as intentional tools of racism. The I-Club immediately responded with an apology and a side note ensuring the designer's harmless nature. Although I do appreciate the I-Club's immediate acknowledgement of this wrongdoing and supportive willingness to increase campus education and awareness of these issues, the harm is done: Unintentional racism is still the perpetuation of oppression.
These images mock and degrade Asians as strange creatures. Rather than highlighting the richness of the cultures that I-Club seeks to represent, this image demotes the essence of being "Asian" to the mere possession of squinty eyes and buck teeth. These types of images evoke a history of stereotypical portrayal of Asian Americans in the 19th and 20th centuries as caricatures of Chinese "coolies," who were laborers indentured by Westerners in the Americas during the 19th Century. These depictions were used to subject and belittle Asian immigrants, assuring that social mobility was not possible; as stated before, these images maintain an image of Asians as "foreign looking." They have also been used to lessen the masculine appeal of Asian men by portraying them as cartoon-like and "funny" (as a means of preventing intermarriages between white women and Asian men). In the past, such caricatures have been protested against by national coalitions of Asian Americans, i.e. the Abercrombie & Fitch t-shirt campaign in 2004.
To add insult to injury, the "Bake Sale" flyer creator found the image in Microsoft Word's clip-art database, showcasing an even larger problem: the ignorance and power embedded within such corporations and institutions. This is not an isolated incident; contemporary pop-culture allows this type of racism to continually offend and dis-empower many minorities. Other racially derogatory images include the black "Mammy" figure embodied by Aunt Jemima or Mrs. Butterworth's syrup. And, of course the image of Native American's portrayed in the ever-popular, Washington Redskins icon. Native Americans have been fighting to remove caricatures from team mascots for years. These images are all offensive and derogatory. Yet they remain in mainstream American culture as a way of marketing a product, getting a sale. They are a reminder of a history of unforgivable racism towards people of color that, unfortunately, clearly persists today.
I am dismayed to find such discrimination-perpetuating images being promoted on our own campus, and by members of the Asian community, no less. It is important to recognize that such images are harmful to Asians and Asian Americans, portraying them as alien and unworthy of respect.
I am hopeful that the result of this incident will be increased education and understanding between all of our communities on campus, which can prevent such an incident from occurring again. The Bias Intervention Team along with the Asian Community at Tufts and the International Club are sponsoring a discussion that examines questions dealing with the effects this could have on international Asian students, the role of international students in preventing racism in America, the impacts of these images on campus, and also, the harmful impacts of mainstream advertising images that we are all exposed to daily.
Kimberly Sue is a senior who is majoring in American Studies.
