Strange Day in Higher Education

I am currently doing a thesis project as my last semester at CCA approaches. It's been a hard trek through art school trying to find what I believe is what I love to do. Thesis, the instructors say, is the culmunation of your experience at school and should be your last great work here. Honestly most students find it a requirement that is forced on them, but in the spirit of fun projects I willingly let myself into thesis with an optimistic eye.

So with various drafts of proposals I examined what I felt passionately about and proposed this as my thesis topic:

Are You a Rice Lover?

The idea of Asian Fetish is a sexual fantasy completely integrated into and accepted by mainstream society. The Geisha Girl, the Dragon Lady, the image of the total submissive female is the Western eye candy, the fetish that isn’t some kind of sexual deviancy. I would like to explore the slang terms associated with this fetish and the consequences of my own compliancy with this verbal assault.

Rice Lover, Asian Fever, Yellow Fever, Yellow Plague, Bamboo Fever, being a Pinkerton, Rice King, Rice Queen, Sticky Rice, Orientalist, capturing the Pokemon, plucking the flower of the Orient, harvesting the rice paddy, riding the Orient Express--all these terms span different levels of stereotypes persistent in today’s Western society and these are only the tip of the iceberg.

I would like to show that Asian fetishes not only affect the white imagination, but also have brainwashed the Asian one.

This is an issue, these stereotypes, that has plagued me since I was born an Asian female. This topic has sprouted up again and again for other project ideas, but I have never been able to use it until now. I was really excited about the freedom of exploration and investigation into an issue that is steeped with history and gross fetishization of the "East."

So in class I read my proposal, talked about the way these stereotypes have affected me, why they made me mad, the creepy websites out there advertising how to successfully date lovely Asian ladies and fulfill their fantasies. I got pretty excited, heated, and most of the women in class were totally with me, nodding their heads with recognition of similar instances in their lives.
I said I wanted to explore this fetish, why does the West see the East like this, why does this idea continue to wind its way into our lives. When will it stop?

After my presentation, I waited for feedback, some response. My fellow classmates had some good observations, but before they could continue, the instructor, one of three, but the only one in the room interjected.

So a little side note about the instructor, male, older than middle-age, white, well known designer with a successful firm, and notorious for being the difficult instructor in thesis.

The instructor said, well it sounds like to me that you are trying to preserve the pure blood lines of Asians and that all white men should not intermarry with them. He asked, so what, are you going to dress like a geisha all semester? You can't make such generalizations, that all Asian women feel this way, and that all white men feel like this. And that I should watch my language as I was sounding like a racist.

To which, in horror, I replied, I am not making broad generalizations. I don't assume to make any generalizations, these stereotypes and how they affect me is going to be what I am exploring, how the power dynamics between the West and the East are the real subject.

Well, he continued by citing examples of his friends that have Asian wives and the they are happy and in loving relationships. He then went on to say that another instructor's daughter-in-law was Chinese and how the instructor was Jewish. So I asked her, well I am sure your daughter-in-law has run into these stereotypes too and that she should ask her how it affects her. I again talked about the power dynamics and that it wasn't personal, it was about how the West has always dominated the East as female and that the stereotypes prove this to continue.

Then comes the true horror.
The instructor then went on to say that the real minorities were white men.
Then as if to catch himself, went on to joke, well Dutch white men were the real minority. (I assumed he was referring to his own dutch heritage.) I could only stand there in silence, I was so mad, it crazed me. And no one said anything. Not even the other instructor, with the Chinese daughter-in-law, stood there staring at me in silence. It was racism like I had never experienced and I was scared to death.

I didn't think I would be so afraid of saying anything, but I was so caught off guard, these instructors so authoritative that I didn't know what to say. To say I felt like a victim is more that enough. And I have always prided myself as being outspoken, willing to say anything in defense of injustice. And here I was in class, completely silenced. I was not expecting this kind of blatant racism in a classroom at CCA, nor in any other higher education environment. It was chilling the silence and I just let it go because if I was to speak any further I would have just broken down.

So then my crit was over and the class moved on as if I was just unfortunate roadkill.

To say that CCA touts diversity as it's power card is an understatement. They have been waving that banner as if to prove that among art schools, they are the most diverse. And yet the faculty and indeed the entire population of the school is far from real diversity. And even if they have a few people of color, it doesn't mean that they know how to talk about it, to support diversity with safe spaces to address our concerns.

The Student Services office had no resources to help me, and had no real strategy to deal with racist harassments. They tried to calm me down and told me I could try talking to the instructor and work this misunderstanding out, that the instructor was human too. I left, calmer outwardly, but further incensed.

I have an appointment to see the Chair of the Graphic Design Department to see what can be resolved. Hopefully something helpful will come of this discussion, but for now I am just frustrated.