Working toward a truly multicultural America<\/p>\n
Evi Mariani
\nThe Jakarta Post\/Jakarta<\/p>\n
Having grown up as an Asian-American in the United States,
\nProfessor Evelyn Hu-deHart is now a seasoned American citizen in
\nthe area of discrimination.<\/p>\n
During her early years as a Chinese immigrant in the U.S. in
\nthe 1950s, her parents once were denied the right to rent an
\napartment because some of the other owners did not want yellow-
\nskinned people around.<\/p>\n
Initially, her family were refugees who fled from China
\nbecause her parents were neither Kuo Min Tang members nor
\ncommunists.<\/p>\n
That political situation did not work in their favor, so in
\n1949, when Evelyn was only two, they took refugee in Hong Kong
\nuntil, in 1959, the government told them to get out of the
\ncountry.<\/p>\n
The parents chose the perceived land of opportunity, the
\nUnited States of America.<\/p>\n
They landed on Palo Alto, where Evelyn's father, who could
\nread English, got a job in a library at Stanford University and
\nher mother, who could not speak or read English, worked as a
\ncleaning lady.<\/p>\n
\"It was kind of sad, because my mother was a teacher in China
\nbut in California she had to clean other people's houses,\" said
\nEvelyn, who is now in Japan, on an exchange program with Keio
\nUniversity.<\/p>\n
Educated at Palo Alto public schools, Evelyn grew up aware
\nthat she was not fully accepted as part of the American
\ncommunity.<\/p>\n
\"We were made aware of our differences: We dressed
\ndifferently, looked and spoke differently,\" she told The Jakarta
\nPost during a one-week visit to Indonesia.<\/p>\n
\"Sometimes difference is considered good, but often it can be
\nnegative,\" she added.<\/p>\n
She said that many young Asian-Americans said that they
\nremembered growing up conscious that their eyes were not large
\nenough and their noses too flat, so they wanted to change their
\nappearance to be more like Caucasian-Americans.<\/p>\n
However, her experiences have not made her bitter. Instead,
\nshe is now actively promoting an Asian-American movement to build
\na truly multicultural nation in the U.S.<\/p>\n
Because she did well at school, Evelyn received a scholarship
\nfrom Stanford University to major in political science, where she
\nbecame acquainted with the Asian-American movement.<\/p>\n
\"The movement gave us a framework and the strategy to change
\nthe situation,\" she said. \"Your strategy is not to fight back as
\none person or one family, but to organize and fight back as a
\ncollective against a systematic form of discrimination.\"<\/p>\n
\"Not just, 'I fight because you discriminate against me, so
\nI'm going to take you to court.' We fight back by saying, 'The
\nlaw itself must be changed',\" she added.<\/p>\n
Evelyn, who married a Dutch-American with whom she has three
\nchildren, said that the Asian-American movement modeled itself on
\nthe black-American movement, which was, she said, \"very
\npowerful\".<\/p>\n
Judging from her modest experience, people could easily
\nperceive her as a feeble woman.<\/p>\n
She is, of course, anything but feeble. Her curriculum vitae
\nboasts a huge amount of research she has done, grants she was
\nawarded and academic positions she has taken.<\/p>\n
Since 1973, she has been an assistant and associate professor,
\nand then full professor, at Washington University, University of
\nArizona, Lehman College, New York University, University of
\nColorado and now Brown University, Rhode Island.<\/p>\n
These are just a few of her achievements, on top of books she
\nhas written and a range of academic activities.<\/p>\n
One of her fields of expertise is on the Chinese diaspora in
\nLatin America.<\/p>\n
\"But I also did much other research, not only on the Chinese
\ndiaspora,\" she said.<\/p>\n
\"In America, I speak about many issues. I'm often invited to
\nspeak about black-Americans or Mexican-Americans,\" she said.<\/p>\n
\"In some way, I'm creating a different model. I may be an
\nAsian-American, I know something about my own community. But I
\nalso speak about other communities because they're of concern to
\nme, too,\" she said.<\/p>\n
That's why, besides Chinese and English, she also speaks
\nSpanish, Portuguese, German and French.<\/p>\n
Her extensive academic experience allows her to see herself,
\nas the part of the Chinese diaspora, somehow in an analytical and
\nsharp way.<\/p>\n
She does not believe the internal stereotype Chinese people
\nlike to use about themselves: that Chinese immigrants are
\nsuccessful because they work hard.<\/p>\n
\"At school in Palo Alto I did well because I worked hard. But
\nnot because I'm Chinese. I worked hard because my parents said we
\nhad sacrificed a lot to live here,\" she said.<\/p>\n
Chinese immigrants worked hard, as well as Javanese
\nimmigrants, for example, she said.<\/p>\n
\"I do not like the kind of stereotype I think some Asians
\npropagate about ourselves. Some Asians have internalized this and
\nwe say we work very hard. You know what? Everybody works hard,\"
\nshe said.<\/p>\n
She always like to emphasize that the movement should be
\ncarried out by building coalitions with other minority groups in
\nAmerica and even with the majority, Caucasian-Americans, who
\nagree that multiculturalism is the best for the U.S.<\/p>\n
\"We have to convince Caucasian-Americans that multiculturalism
\nis in their own interest. We don't simply say, 'Do it because it
\nis a morally correct thing to do.' We say, 'Do it because it is
\nin your own interest, too',\" Evelyn said.<\/p>\n
\"We call it interest conversion,\" she said.<\/p>\n
\"Building a multicultural nation does not mean minority
\nAmericans versus Caucasian-Americans. We have to form an alliance
\nwith Caucasian-Americans who say the future of America must be
\ndifferent from the past,\" she said.<\/p>\n
\"We (the movement) are not where we want to be yet, but there
\nhas been progress,\" she said.<\/p>\n
\"Our goal is that, at some time in the future, we are truly a
\nmulticultural society, where people can be different in how they
\nexpress themselves and, at the same time, we have absolutely
\nequal rights and opportunities,\" Evelyn added.<\/p>\n
\"And we have to keep working at it; we cannot sit back and
\nrelax,\" she said.<\/p>",
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