Over 30 students gathered yesterday night to discuss and air their feelings about a Hill Hall flyer that some have called insensitive to Asians.
Organizers of the Bubble Tea Chat, a monthly event hosted by the Asian American Alliance (AAA) to discuss issues pertinent to the community, decided to focus last night's talk on the recent flyer after news of its existence surfaced in recent days.
Senior Angela Lam, an AAA leader, said the chat was meant to be a "safe space" for students affected by the flyer, which freshman In-Goo Kwak posted last week.
Lam and fellow AAA leader Jennifer Duong, a junior, facilitated the lively discussion, which lasted over an hour and attracted students predominantly of Asian descent.
The flyer in question parodied a similar one placed in Hill Hall by freshman Alice Pang as part of her campaign for the Tufts Community Union Senate. Kwak's spoof alluded to several stereotypes of Asians; it featured a reference to small eyes and a phrase in broken English. Kwak is Korean, and Pang is also of Asian descent.
At last night's gathering, students' reactions to Kwak's posting varied. Some did not find the incident particularly egregious, while others called the flyer offensive. Several in attendance also noted that they had encountered non-Asian-American students who took significant offense at the flyer.
The group agreed that derogatory messages can arouse negative consequences even when they are not intended maliciously. And those who found the flyer insensitive and hurtful seemed to agree that it was vital to address these kinds of issues rather than look beyond them.
"I would like for you to go out into the larger Tufts community and acknowledge your opinions about race. … Race can't end tonight, and this discussion can't end," Duong said to the group. "Am I perpetuating and reinforcing these negative stereotypes or am I seeking to challenge them?"
Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman received a Residential Life incident report in response to the event, according to an e-mail that was sent to the distribution list of the "Group of Six" and was obtained by the Daily. The Group of Six, of which the Asian American Center is a member, comprises a collection of cultural centers that seek to promote diversity on campus.
Lam said her goal for the meeting was to set the record straight. Many students, she said, were confused as to the circumstances behind the flyer's posting and Kwak's intentions. "I just wanted people to know the facts," she said in an interview after the gathering.
Lam and Duong reviewed ground rules for the meeting before opening a forum for discussion. The coordinators asked students to obey a one-minute time limit when making statements, to "challenge ideas, not people," and to "respect the safe space that we are trying to create."
The guidelines represented an attempt to make students feel secure in sharing their opinions and avoid threatening their privacy.
The atmosphere remained respectful throughout the forum, as students listened to each other and often nodded in agreement as others spoke. A number of attendees came into the meeting with different interpretations of the circumstances that brought them there.
"I think that people were able to discuss and learn a little from each other," Lam said. "Some people had different views … and it was good for people to talk through these ideas and learn from each other."
A couple of the attendees found the flyer particularly injurious because it was posted by a fellow Asian American, someone who they would have hoped would be more cognizant of negative Asian stereotypes.
In their e-mail, Group of Six leaders — including Asian American Center Director Linell Yugawa — condemned the poster, despite what Kwak may have intended.
"Some may argue that we need to ‘lighten up' and/ or ‘reclaim' the stereotypes and words that have harmed us and our communities," the e-mail read. "While it is one thing to mutually engage in this type of conversation, it is another to post stereotypical and racist language that is open to interpretation and hurtful to many."
Lam said the students at last night's event were respectful of the ground rules but also felt free to treat the meeting as a casual affair. Toward the end, there were about thirty students who were still eager to continue with the discussion.
At least one student said that despite Kwak's attempts to parody the Asian stereotype, he instead reaffirmed the offensive labels' power.
"By acting like you're not [a typical Asian], you're trying to disassociate from those stereotypes by making fun of them," the attendee said. Individual attendees' names are not being printed, at the request of the meeting's organizers.
Chat topics also included the Asian-American identity, the historical origination of derogatory terms and the role of the media in enforcing biases.
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Alexandra Bogus contributed reporting to this article.
