Education Is Failing Asian-Americans : Bigotry: A hate sign trumpets what students at the Claremont Colleges are fighting as a minority denied recognition.

“Asian Americans die Now!” This slogan was emblazoned in 2-foot high bright yellow letters on a wall at the elite liberal arts college where I teach. The slogan originally read, “Asian American Studies Now!” It had been put up for the benefit of visitors who were examining the college for reaccreditation in the first week of March. But under cover of darkness, after the visitors departed, the sign was altered to convey this message of racial hate.

Apologists might wish to dismiss this incident as a thoughtless student prank, but if one looks deeper into the circumstances, there is much to learn about the plight of Asian-Americans in our society.

For six years, Asian-American students paying for the privilege of attending the expensive and exclusive Claremont Colleges have been asking for courses dealing with the Asian-American experience. These students are not militant separatists seeking to destroy the “mainstream” curriculum; they are simply asking for recognition and inclusion in the college community.

From an institutional viewpoint, Asian-Americans really have been an invisible minority. Recently, some corrective steps have been taken at my college, Pomona, but overall, the situation at the five Claremont Colleges has been bleak.

Unlike other student groups, such as women, blacks, Chicanos and Jews, the Asian-American students have not been given a place to gather and socialize; the colleges have not offered them help in planning programs or activities. Nor are there courses to educate the college community about a group that constitutes 10% of California’s population and an even higher percentage of students on campus.

The sad and ironic fact of the matter is that Asian-American students have been shut out by their own high-minded educational institutions, and there is a woeful lack of awareness that this might constitute a pattern of racial discrimination.

The situation has changed somewhat this year with the arrival of a new president at Pomona. To his credit, Peter Stanley moved the administration off dead-center and somehow scraped up enough funds to provide a half-time staff person to help organize programs for our students, and he gave them the use of a room on campus for activities. He properly condemned the racist slogan and pledged to find additional funds to offer courses in Asian-American studies next year. But even with the best of intentions, he is still unable to pledge that courses dealing with the Asian-American experience will become a permanent part of the curriculum. Resistance to this idea at the Claremont Colleges is still too strong.

To explain the unresponsiveness of these institutions, some point to the insensitivity of the administrators. If that is the problem, why not pursue the obvious remedy and place minorities who are competent and “sensitive” in administrative positions?

Other apologists claim that more important priorities prevent an institutional response to student demands. But what could be more important than spending resources on training our next generation of leadership in the problems of understanding and managing a multiethnic society? Educating our students about the Asian-American experience would surely promote this goal.

Finally, those who buy the myth of Asian-Americans as a model minority argue that “they” don’t need special “help.” Education would dispel this myth; it would also help all of us overcome mutual fear and ignorance regarding issues of color. For the welfare of our increasingly diverse society, we have got to understand that Asian-Americans suffer from the same problems as other groups, in addition to being victimized by continuing discrimination and hate crimes.

This issue is made even more crucial as our economic conflicts with Asia heat up. These trade conflicts are difficult enough to resolve without injecting racial stereotyping and hate-filled rhetoric. Add to this the inability of most Americans to distinguish between foreign nationals and American citizens of Asian ancestry, and it is obvious that Asian-Americans have reason to be concerned. If the rise of anti-Asian-American hate crime documented by a recent report of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission is any indication, some of our worst fears may be realized if action is not taken today.

The circumstances surrounding the racist slogan illustrate the need for our institutions to include Asian-Americans among groups with recognized needs and demands. Too often Asian-Americans are invisible because we are ignored and excluded from policy-making positions, even in institutions that purport to champion human dignity and the civilizing pursuit of knowledge.

The answer is for these institutions to do what they are supposed to do: Supply us with knowledge, broaden our horizons and create a community spirit that graduates will carry with them as they move into positions of leadership.