Comments on: Just because my race is Asian I’ve been …

By: mmhmm

mmhmm — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 18:04:32 +0000

yeah… because it would be feasible to hold AACC events in Asian. i’ve personally always felt welcome at all the cultural house events. (i’m not a regular attendee, nor heavily involved with any of the groups.)

that said, i understand where the OP is coming from and i used to feel the same way. i still do about some groups, but it’s nothing to complain about.

By: Oh my

Oh my — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 19:52:54 +0000

“while it is true that race is an artificial construct, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t common experiences and cultures that can be celebrated within such groups”

I stopped reading this comment because my nihilism meter just exploded.

By: what?

what? — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 01:20:43 +0000

You are just so so wrong that it’s sad.

By: you idiot

you idiot — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 01:05:34 +0000

You’re just plain ignorant.

By: quit lying.

quit lying. — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 12:05:21 +0000

yeah, i get the sense that you’ve never actually been to a la casa event, which are conducted in the English (as they are at the AACC, the Af-Am House, and the NACC).

By: BR10

BR10 — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:42:25 +0000

Every cultural event I’ve been to has mostly been in English, and if there were components in another language, the group was taught what they needed to know. The only exception was a Spanish/Portuguese poetry reading at La Casa…and then everything was in English except the poetry. So I don’t know what you’re on about.

By: Anglophone

Anglophone — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:04:55 +0000

You say that all people are invited, but it’s not very inviting or welcoming when most discussion occurs in a foreign language that very few speak well. If these groups wanted to promote intercultural understanding, they would conduct their events in English, the lingua franca.

By: Latino '13

Latino '13 — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 08:23:16 +0000

I’m glad to see other people understand the points of the cultural houses better then others on this board.

Firstly, the reason you are getting “targeted” by the Latino Cultural Center is because you must of put that you were Latino on your application. That is the only way that La Casa can get your information to contact you.

The point of the cultural centers are not to create a microcosm of Yale within them. That’s the point of the RCs and basically everything else at Yale. The point of the cultural centers is to receive students who might feel like they need a place that will remind them of home – a place where they might feel comfortable should they not feel comfortable at Yale as a whole. Or if anyone does want to find people to speak Spanish/Chinese/Japanese/Korean,etc. they might be able to by going to their respective cultural center. Or should you want to find people who are “like you” for whatever purposes, you can. Of course, the doors are open to everyone, and this isn’t an empty message. However, the cultural centers aren’t going to target everyone – that’s impossible and frankly besides their purpose.

If you are getting annoyed by e-mails, e-mail the director of the cultural center and asked to be removed from their panlists. It’s simple. They will forget you exist, you will continue ignoring their existence and everyone will be all the happier. Or you can just ignore them as well. Cultural centers do have some amazing events with REALLY good food indeed and I would LOVE to have one less person there.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 00:02:44 +0000

^This.

By: br13

br13 — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:44:18 +0000

solution to your problem: just don’t go to their events. no one’s forcing you to be a part of an ethnic community on campus.

and bitching about how cultural houses promote divisiveness seems to be a lot more divisive than, say, having an cultural dinner at la casa to celebrate a mexican holiday (in which people of all backgrounds are invited).

also, if you acknowledge that students who SELF-IDENTIFY ON THEIR APPLICATIONS as latino are more likely to A) speak spanish and B) be interested in the latino cultural center, i see absolutely no reason why someone asking you (who presumably identifies as latino) to join their group would be unenjoyable or frustrating. the cultural houses aren’t just about inviting as many people to events as possible, they’re about creating a community for students who need it. if you don’t need it, again, just don’t go…

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 21:27:11 +0000

While I agree that cultural houses do have a place in celebrating culture on campus, I do kind of agree with the OP. I don’t enjoy being targeted (receiving letters, facebook messages, etc.) to join such and such activity at “my” cultural house. I understand that students of a certain ethnicity are probably going to be more interested, on average, in a specific cultural house. However, when I receive cards with Spanish sprinkled in it when I don’t speak the language, it frustrates me. Even then, I might be ok with it if I received an equal number of solicitations from all the cultural houses, but I don’t. If the point of the houses is to promote culture at Yale, why don’t I receive more invitations at all the cultural houses? At the most, it’s “come to our show.” Maybe other people have had different experiences, but I don’t like groups assuming that I’m interested in something or that I speak a certain language based on my ethnicity alone.

By: really

really — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 13:43:00 +0000

Many cultural groups exist to promote a sense of victimization and get upset whenever anything remotely politically incorrect gets said on campus. This will lead to special privileges for that racial group in the future (not mention leadership positions you can put on a resume and talking about how you ‘fought the good fight’).

I do not mean, of course, that all cultural groups do this, but I would be wary.

And especially since you are Asian I would be wary. One of the great ironies of multiculturalism and this whole diversity establishment is that they set up policies like affirmative action which hurt Asians (a real minority group) even more than whites.