Focus on Asian American vs. White similarities/ differences (instead of comparing with other ethnic groups):

 

"I think that that would be nice but realistically at my high school when I saw the Asian people hang out with the white people, I thought it was disgusting."– Pat (Pitzer)

 

"And so um, for me I tend not to hang out with white people so much because I agree that they’re rich as opposed to more like they’re white and like yeah, it’s more like the issue of class."–Lan (Pitzer)

 

"Um, I actually thought it was really funny freshman year, like most of the time we hung out with Asian guys but when it came to white guys, the only ones who would approach us were ones with Asian fetishes." –Tina (Scripps)

 

"It’s not like that at Mudd. A lot of white people hang out with Asians." -Ruka (Harvey Mudd)

 

"I suppose, like when, like growing up in, like, Hawaii, then since it was mostly Asians, then I never really thought of myself as somehow like, like I mentioned before…..or, and I don’t know, I saw people as more as like people. Then like, so when I came here, it was like lots of people here, lots of white people, but I don’t care because they were all the same." –Dustin (Pitzer)

 

On talking about race:

 

"In general, I’ve found that perhaps since this is supposed to be an academic environment, people kind of don’t know how to talk about race but know that since they don’t know how, they shouldn’t be talking about it. . . I mean, there are some white people who are very close at Pitzer to a lot of different groups of Asian friends and they’ll even talk about that kind of stuff. We have white people working at CAPAS, for instance, and I mean we talk about race with them. But a lot of people will . . . especially the white majority at Pitzer does not know how to talk about race and so they actively avoid the subject. And if you get into a situation in which you’re forced to talk about race, they’re really, really uncomfortable about it because I think rightfully so because they’re worried about making assumptions. But I mean . . . since there’s, like . . . they don’t really try to learn to . . . a lot of them don’t even try to learn to talk about race either and so I get the feeling that they just kind of leave us alone unless there’s something that pertains to us as Pitzer students or as you know, as members of a group other than just Asian Americans." – Pat (Pitzer)

 

Importance of class / Race vs. Class:

 

"Basically what happened was I hung out with all the poor minorities. We were all thrown together because we didn’t really get along with anyone else in school and the minorities there, especially the Asian people there who were well-off would just hang out with the other white people." –Pat (Pitzer)

 

"For me personally, more unifying factors are issues of class and I tend to hang out a lot more and more comfortable with people who are poor, um, yeah poor." -Lan (Pitzer)

 

 

"It’s more acceptable to talk about your race and being proud of your race rather than being poor." –Lan ( Pomona)

 

"When I came here to the Claremont colleges even though there were Asian people here or whatever I don’t necessarily click with them because I feel like they are upper class Asian people… and they’re like different from me because I’m not." – Lan (Pitzer)

 

"I did realize that my Asian friends here are all rich…and they’re mostly all rich here I feel like..but then even if I knew that, I felt like it was better to hang out with those people because you never talk about class really…and it never really comes up so for me I felt like it was easier to hang out with them even if it kind of bothered me." –Young Mi ( Pomona)

 

"Most of my life we’ve been lower class but not just that but people that I tend to get along very well with are people who were recent or were immigrants in their lifetime because I feel like that was just a horrifying experience if you were an immigrant and coming in you had to start from the very bottom."–Daniel ( Claremont McKenna)

 

"For me a more unifying factor is the issue of class and I find that I tend to hang out a lot more and am more comfortable with people who are poor? Yeah, poor. And for me I don’t hang out with white people so much because I believe that they are rich as opposed to the fact that they’re white…and yeah it’s more an issue of class."–Lan (Pitzer)

 

"I found that like, talking about issues of class especially with people who are of a more upper class and consequently predominantly white at Pitzer is interesting because everyone thinks they can understand what it means to talk about money, but no one really like, especially the people who are well off, very, in general have a really poor idea of what it means."– Pat (Pitzer)

 

"…When I was a freshman they have Oxfam every year I just remember this one comment they had on those placards that they put on the tables that really incensed me…it was something like “how many kids are experiencing hunger and then there were these two, one was about blah-blah-blah in 100 kids in the world have never had their hair professionally done and blah-blah-blah have never set foot in a mall” and I was like is this the only way that you can relate to someone who is rich what it means to be hungry what it means to be poor and I was so angry… "– Lily (Harvey Mudd)

 

"Perhaps when people talk about issues of class um, I think sometimes they don’t understand because the terms they use don’t really, um, not really like not everyone understands the terms people use. "– Young Mi ( Pomona)

 

"Well, to expand on that I really don’t think it’s about money, because well, I think like what Lily was saying I think it’s really about experience because I mean, uh, like, I’m not sure what the terms are really um, like, my dad owns a 7-11 and people look down upon that. They’re like 'oh, you know, I feel bad for you blah blah blah' and I’m like 'why?'" – Tina (Scripps)

 

"…There is more to it than just that experience because there is something like, I will not know what it’s like to wonder if we’re going to have enough money to eat everyday like that’s not a concern of me and my family um, but I guess that in terms of like talking about class on campus I feel there are two things that make that conversation that allow people to dismiss that conversation and one is that being in the United States and the middle class myth of the US that like, it’s really easy to buy into is like white middle class suburbia whatever um like “we call come from the same class” and it’s this idea of a meritocracy we work hard and we’re all trying to get ours and like we’re all in the same boat which is not, which I don’t think is the truth… "– Sandhya (Pomona)

 

Asian American cliques at the Claremont Colleges:

 

"People separated off by the way they looked, where they’re coming from, by their income, just people separated off. I never really thought about it until I came here.” –Daniel ( Claremont McKenna)

 

"In the class above us there’s this third floor Atwood situation in which all of the Asians lived there and hung out with each other all the time and so as a result our sponsor/mentor program API-SPAM formed due to that and so I do see a bit of cliquey-ness at Mudd." -Vicky (Harvey Mudd)

 

"Third floor Atwood has been around for years and years. My brother who was also at Mudd graduated before I got there. So even when he was there, third floor Atwood was the Chinese or Asian place. Even the proctors who were kind of like RA’s for other schools, they were always all Asian. But like besides that I don’t really see any separation based on race and you know there are a couple cliques but predominantly the school mixes really well." –Mike (Harvey Mudd)

 

Diversity amongst Asian Americans:

 

"Here there aren’t very many South Asians [at the 5-C’s]; I’ve had class with, like, one." –Sandhya ( Pomona)

 

"Like, I’ve always been confused with [other south Asians] growing up in high school… But so, growing up the three of us always went to school together and people would always be like “Are you sisters?” or would confuse us, or would ask us if we knew so-and-so, and oh my gosh how could we not know them…and by the way they live in New York." – Sandhya ( Pomona)

 

 

Finding community in Asian American students or other minorities:

 

"And I guess, my interests and I guess like cultural background with some people who are Asian you can discuss similar values." –Cat (Claremont McKenna)

 

"For me it’s more about my daily needs like the food I eat and stuff… that drew me to having a more Asian community around me… and when I started to meet other Asian people …it was nice to go out with them and then drive out with them to eat food that I like…it was just that daily need for me to eat that type of food or things like that just made me tend to hang out with them more. …and it wasn’t a conscious choice for me to just find these Asian friends..i just needed that kind of thing and people who could understand me better."–Young Mi ( Pomona)

 

"There are like certain unspoken things among people on race I think and sometimes people are just more comfortable with each other. The way they act and the things they worry about." –Daniel ( Claremont McKenna)

 

"Like I think Pitzer having CAPAS and AASP is nice because it allows you to get together with other people and talk about crap like that. You can work out a way to mix the cross-racial boundaries without giving up your racial identity." –Pat (Pitzer)

 

"And so answering the question of where I find community, I find community here with women of color and mostly black women." –Sandyha ( Pomona)

 

"For me it would be very difficult for me to talk to white people but it’s much easier for me to talk to other minorities because we’re all minorities who are all oppressed. So I guess I’m kind of in multiple cliques although my group of black friends are seniors also but then it’s also like I can go there and not feel like oppressed and objectified. I guess it’s much easier." –Dustin (Pitzer)

 

"When I’m with ethnic groups, I have some kind of connection with them. When I came here, it was weird because I would like drop things out I’m used to saying. Like with a group of Asian friends, like they’d immediately understand."–Albert ( Pomona)

 

"Coming to the Claremont Colleges I still seem to have predominantly Asian friends. But I don’t know if it’s my not making the effort not to make other friends who are not Asian but I think it’s mostly the interests I have tend toward Asian interests. I don’t know, anime could be one example. And I guess, like interests, and my cultural background with some people who are Asian you can discuss similar values." –Cat ( Claremont McKenna)

 

"And like I noticed after that like that the Claremont colleges are so racially tense and everybody groups off-like the black people hang with the black people, the Asian people with the Asian people, and the whites. There’s no room for people to move around and like, um, my friends all happen to be Asian too. It’s not like I don’t want to be friends with white people, it’s just that it never really clicks."-Tina (Scripps)

 

"I am different and people are definitely it’s like a circular cycle of people. Because they treat me differently, I feel like I have to act differently and go hangout with the outcast . . . "–Tina (Scripps)

 

"When I came here I felt quite liberated and it was, like, the first time where I was unaware of my race or anything. Um..but it’s maybe just because in comparison with my experiences that the other two places that I’ve lived in, that I didn’t feel separation."–Lily (Harvey Mudd)

 

"I think there is like, a tension, I think in the Claremont Colleges. I think there is, there are like certain unspoken things, I think, among people on race I think. And sometimes some people are just more comfortable with each other, the way they act and like the things they worry about, I mean. "–Daniel ( Claremont McKenna)

 

Using the terms Asian and Asian-American interchangeably:

 

"It’s different just because there’s a larger number of Asian people here than there were at my high school." –Pat (Pitzer)

 

"I had a closer group of Asian friends, so that was an interesting thing for me to switch."–Albert ( Pomona)

 

"The way I see it when I’m here is foreigners, like the Japanese and the Jamaicans, against the Americans." -Ruka (Havery Mudd)

 

"…We’ve tried to keep international sponsors but they feel disenfranchised because its like Asian American sponsor programs with Asians but the international emphasis is left out."—Dustin (Pitzer)

 

Justifying perspectives with respect to racism:

 

"When I have an encounter with someone that strikes me the wrong way and I have no proof that it was because of my race or my sexual orientation or because of any part of my identity, but I leave that…and then I talk to someone and they’re, like, ‘you have no proof’ that that is why…and then I’m, like,’yeah you’re right but then again I have the 19 years of life prior to that where there has been this buildup of tension between who I am and this society’….and whether or not that is the intention, the outcome for me is just as real." – Sandhya ( Pomona)

 

"I confuse white people all the time…tall blonde guy…but there’s not the same political or social context where there is that power differential in my confusing them and in their assuming that I’m some other Indian person… I don’t know, I just wanted to throw that in there, too. Because I feel like that social context and that political and historical context are really important." – Sandhya ( Pomona)

 

"Yeah, I confuse Asian faces all the time…because I wasn’t brought up in a community where, you know, the differences between Asians weren’t necessary for me to notice… because it’d just be like “oh yeah, the Asian guy, that’s really easy to find.” It’s just what you are brought up with and what you’re used to. And, I don’t think its racism to not be able to tell the difference between two Asian people…because its not like a conscious thing or even saying that you’re just not worthy to try to tell the difference [between two Asians]…because given their background they don’t have the ability to… "- Mike (Harvey Mudd)

 

"I don’t think that’s racist because if you’re brought up in an Asian community is hard for you to recognize white faces."–Ruka (Harvey Mudd)

 

"I had a lot of similar experiences, especially when I was in Oklahoma and when I was in Colorado when there wasn’t much of an Asian community and it was predominantly white. For instance, whenever there was some – another Asian girl – in the school, they would ask, “oh, is that your sister?” Or if there was an Asian guy, they would like, “oh, we hear you’re going out with blah-blah-blah” and you’re like, “who’s that?” They just automatically made the assumption that I only associated with Asian people, which is untrue."- Lily (Harvey Mudd)

 

Differences in parental relationships:

 

"I don’t know but my parents are pretty strict and compared to my roommate last year, she would talk a lot with her parents like my parents I didn’t talk to them a lot about boys and stuff, but like her parents gave her a box of condoms for Christmas (laughter) so it was kind of different there." –Cat ( Claremont McKenna)

 

On keeping quiet when problems arise:

 

"Especially before we were naturalized we were legal residents for about 3 years and before that we were just aliens with visa and we could stay as long as my parents were in school and so whenever bad things happened we didn’t say shit. "–Daniel ( Claremont McKenna)

 

"Even now with our citizenship papers…like last year my mom was backing out with her car and somebody hit her car and just so happened to be Caucasian…and I was like mom it was obviously her fault why don’t we just take it to the courts and she was like “no no no, don’t do that” because you know what are the courts going to find…are they going to find it in the favor of us or in favor of the other person. "– Daniel ( Claremont McKenna)

 

"I think for a lot of immigrants especially first generation immigrants who don’t have security and have the fear of being deported especially now after the Patriot Act, I feel that many people just have this fear in their hearts that it’s my word against a white person’s word and yea, it doesn’t matter what I say like it’s just going to be his word against mine and it doesn’t really matter. "– Daniel (Claremont McKenna)

 

"When my professor confuses me with another Asian person for the entire semester…like every time… I don’t say shit because I’m like whatever I mean its not worth the trouble because if I say something then I have to deal with this white person and he’s very used to being in a position of authority and why put yourself in this position where you as this underdog have to go up against that, when it’s just something very small and then I feel like sometimes a lot of times people just make everything very small." – Daniel ( Claremont McKenna)

 

On being treated different in class as an Asian American:

 

"One of my friends in high school was suspended because she looked at someone funny and he complained that…she said she was going to get all of her friends to beat him up or something. And she was suspended upon those grounds...which was just like whatever...because she was Asian...and I guess like in a predominantly white community they’re like Ooo Asians do drugs and they’re going to beat people up and stuff like that…" – Tina (Scripps)

 

"And then last semester in core, my professor called me into her office because she thought that I had plagiarized a paper that I had written all by myself. ..yes all by myself…and she was like “this is too good to be your writing…I had an English teacher look this over your writing and this is not your writing.” And I was like...ok…do you have proof …did you go look up a line in my paper…did you find it on the internet anywhere… and she’s like “No, I have no proof, but I’m still going to give you a B- because I think that you cheated...and I was so scared at that point and I was like I’ll take whatever grade that she’ll give me …and she was like it is an A- paper but ill give a B- because I still think that you plagiarized. And I’m like ok whatever, and I walked out of her office and was like I just got jipped…like I wrote a beautiful paper and I got jipped on the grounds of because she thinks I plagiarized...and she doesn’t have proof. And I just felt that it was really interesting and that if I were white would it have been any different? Would she have had let me off easier? "-Tina (Scripps)

 

"I just feel like especially at the Claremont Colleges the white kids get away with a lot more. "–Tina (Scripps)

 

"For me the experiences have been largely eroticizing here from professors and [quotation fingers] “friends” . . . not from actual friends as much, but from – okay – associates, et cetera. In terms of – from the point of professors in class when we’re talking about something having to do with . . . I don’t remember, it was in my art class and we were talking about something Indian and then all of a sudden she was asking me to give this history of – I don’t know what. And I was like, I don’t know. My knowledge is what my . . . this limited thing and I don’t know . . . all of a sudden I was supposed to be this spokesperson for all of the subcontinent and diaspora." - Sandhya ( Pomona)

 

"…Our ethnic studies classes and minority studies classes tend to be filled with people of the minority status, Asian American studies is filled with Asian Americans, Black studies is filled with Black people, and Chicano studies is filled with Chicano people and even though Pitzer has a requirement for intercultural understanding and understanding of minority group, people tend to just take classes for a minority that they are affiliated with, like a female psych major might take psychology of women as opposed to Asian American psych and thereby lose the entire point of taking a intercultural studies class."—Dustin (Pitzer)

 

On cultural appropriation:

 

"In terms of social set up or interacting with people: one, there’s the issue of fashion and there are handbags or t-shirts or whatever that have Indian gods, or Hindu gods on them and have something written in Hindi and like, I have no idea what they say, I’m sure . . . I ask the people who have them, like, “do you know what that says?” and [people responding] “no, I don’t know, it’s just cool” and I don’t know . . . I feel like it would not be okay to put a picture of Jesus on a purse and carry it around. It would not have the same significance or have the same . . . it would be, it would not be comparable." - Sandhya ( Pomona)

 

On sexual orientation and gender identity:

 

"I feel like I’m the gay Asian guy who has to like talk all the time, um, I guess that’s, sort of why we’re here. [Everyone laughs] Um and also in like, AASP which I am involved in and then this year is the first year we’ve had like APA queer diversity training sort of during like our sponsor training, and I felt like I had to do that because there could be like queer people to come after I graduate . . . So I don’t know, like it feels like when I talk about these things like when I’m in CAPAS, the Center for Asian Pacific American Students at Pitzer then, then nobody wants to do it and then I feel like I’m just talking and then nobody, nobody really cares, and that I’m just talking because that’s my orientation that’s my group but then yeah, nobody cares essentially, yeah, I don’t know, that’s how I feel like most of the time. "– Dustin (Pitzer)

 

"There’s this, like . . . this actually, kind of conflict between this overt sexualiz- overt sexualization of queer people and desexualization of me as a South Asian person and it’s this kind of this really interesting and confusing and painful battle, I think. "- Sandhya ( Pomona)

 

On working towards understanding:

 

"I think a lot of people hold that attitude of this “we’re liberal,” - in quotations for the tape recorder. [Laughs] And so, but that means that “yeah-yeah-yeah, we’re cool, but I’m not involved, I don’t want to have to deal with it.” And so, what the outcome is that people are trying to be politically correct, not actually to come to any understanding on anything. And I think where that’s the motivation – is where, people who are on the receiving end of things, who are lower class, who are disabled, who are of color, who are et cetera are really frustrated. At least for me, that’s where I get really frustrated because I’m like, “I don’t want you to pick the right term and call me the right term, I want you to actually understand where I’m coming from. And I want to understand where you’re coming from." - Sandhya ( Pomona)

 

 

On changing the policies of different schools:

 

"Mudd is good."—Mike (Harvey Mudd)

 

"I think Mudd is good because of the people there. They’re all open-minded people and respectful. And I’ve had an easy time."—Ruka (Harvey Mudd)

 

"What’s bad about it is that we’re always working. Even if they do make new programs and stuff, no one has time to show up and enjoy it. It’s a time commitment thing. It’s just not possible with the schedule. And when you do have free time, you’d rather hang out with friends than go to scheduled meetings."—Lily (Harvey Mudd)

 

"At the same what have been frustrating is the lack of accountability on the part of the administration when, for me as a Pomona student, talking to Pomona’s administration about a five college dynamic like what’s going on in terms of the five colleges, there’s this lack of accountability that I think administration is hands off when it comes to 5C and I think that is problematic because as a Pomona student, I can take off campus classes, I live, we share dining halls, we share athletic teams, everything is shared so what happens up at Mudd is important to me, at the same time as stuff happening at Pomona is important to me…."—Sandhya (Pomona)

 

"Um, groups like ASU and things like that at Scripps are really good but I think it needs to start within the other classrooms. I want them to start in where predominantly, there all white kids you know because whenever we talk about race, or gender, or sexuality, or anything like that, its just like taboo, we just brush over it. And like, especially at a liberal arts school, I think its so, I mean that should like take the reins and take about it freely and cause like what Jessica says, the discussions in a lot of the Asian American classes, they’re really good and a lot of them get really heated and things like that but when u talk about race in the other classrooms, no one else seems to care and I want to enforce like kinda knowledge about it. I think that if they enforced it in those classrooms then it can affect the school."—Tina (Scripps)

 

Problems within the 5-C structure:

 

"The problem comes down to when Asian Americans across campuses are trying to deal with issues that affects all colleges, its hard to reach people from other campuses…But the problem comes when we’re not just isolated as individual colleges and we actually need to deal with crap that transcends college borders; there isn’t that institutional support there. There’s nothing that can really sustain a 5C Asian American community and because of that, we become more fragmented than I think we really should be."—Pat (Pitzer)

 

". . . But to not just focus on the oppressions or the issues of Asian Americans, but knowing that or realizing and taking into account that we are also Asian and poor rich and Asian like queer Asian, not just to have a little segment (like oh this is just queer an Asian week or something like that) but to incorporate it into everything else. You can’t deal with Asian Americans without dealing with class and sexual orientation and coolness. But I don’t know how u can get individual or personal organizations to change like that."—Lan (Pitzer)

 

"I think part of the fact that we are a consortium is there are 5 separate colleges that are unique, you know, Scripps offer something that Pitzer doesn’t, Pomona and CMC, each college offers something different and to lose that I think would be sad."—Sandhya (Pomona)

 

On expectations of institutional support:

 

"Something that I expect of my college to give me and the students I’m taking classes with is that tool in terms of if I’m going to find a job afterwards, I think that’s something key for me to understand before I’m out there working with people and if I’m politics for example, and if I’m in health care, knowing and understanding those systems of oppression and power and how that’s being played out in my society."—Sandhya (Pomona)

 

"I don’t expect anything from CMC for those purposes at all… I had to find my own friends, people that I were close with, join my own groups and stuff like that. I don’t really expect anything from my school and the thing is me not expecting that is not saying that other people should not expect that…the only thing I expect my professors to teach me is to write me a letter of recommendation and help me find a job. That’s all I expect from them. Me personally, that’s just a fact that I have come to accept about CMC. That wasn’t always the case, but that was something that I’ve come to." —Daniel Shi ( Claremont McKenna)

 

"I have a lot of expectations from our college. One being a 5C Asian American resource center."—Sandhya ( Pomona)

 

On changes are wanted with regards to the 5-C environment:

 

"Its really hard to do something as a 5C group together because we’re usually missing Mudd; or sometimes CMC can’t get institutional support for what their doing."—Patrick (Pitzer)

 

"One thing is the Asian American mentor groups for the freshmen here. That was one thing that was going to be really cool but ended up being nothing at all, and I’d like some kind of change or rethinking of what’s going with that because I ended up not getting really close with people or connecting with anything in the Asian American community or in the 5Cs at all, anything that I got in connection with is stuff I’ve done on my own, it’d be nice to have some freshmen program to give you more information about what’s going on, so that’s one thing for me."—Albert (Pomona)

 

"…Something I want to see happen is a development of space where we can work together as students or activists on the 5 colleges to bring about change on all 5 colleges at the same time."—Sandhya (Pomona)

 

Views on the racial awareness or support at our school:

 

"The racial awareness at Mudd is low; it’s more like we kind of ignore it during our time at Mudd in order to focus on… We concentrate heavily on education, schoolwork type education not cultural type education. We concentrate more on school than our colleagues do where they have more time to think about culture and grow as a person as opposed to just to learn stuff."—Mike (HMC)

 

"… On the whole, Pomona, Pitzer, Scripps have been more established than the other two colleges."—Patrick (Pitzer)

 

"I think that we’re improving because this year as opposed to last year, we went on a retreat in the beginning, and the school’s pretty supportive of that and I think if we just keep on showing that we care about this kind of stuff and showing that we’re not going to back down and we’re going to keep on asking for institutional support, eventually they’ll realize that its an important thing to us and they should also realize that it should be an important thing to them too."—Cat (CMC)

 

"At Scripps, the Asian American student union and the Asian American sponsor program are I feel really good places for students of color to come and discuss things.”—Jessica (Scripps)

 

"As far as [ethnic studies] classes go, a lot of the classes are taken by people of color. Um, the discussions in those classes are very good and the professors themselves make the entire space feel comfortable in talking about issues. So I guess the student group on campus as well as a few of the professors are I found really good about these things.”—Jessica (Scripps)