Clubs, Organizations and Being Invisible
I support having clubs and organizations on university campuses that represent a certain ethnicity such as the Chinese-American Caucus, the Black Student Alliance, the Thai Students’ Association, the Latinos in Action Club, etc. I love that these clubs exist in order to celebrate the ethnic backgrounds and races that they hope to inform everyone of and to maintain awareness of their existence in the US — and the world.
I attended events like these on my university campus in Virginia and other ones in Boston as well as visiting museums aimed at African-American culture with my brother that had free entry even and have always noticed the lack of diversity that these clubs, organizations and events attracted. It’s disappointing to see that everyone is indeed welcome to attend club meetings, join organizations and come to events but almost everyone who make themselves welcome at these meetings and events are people whom identify themselves as what the clubs and organizations and museums have named themselves to represent.
I attended any event except for anything having to do with being Chinese-American in order to expand my horizons, sure, but, also, to give support to all people who aim for people to take notice of them and educate themselves of the ethnic group that the club or museum specifies as representing. I also got tired of seeing few of anyone else but people of Chinese descent attend the Chinese-American Caucus events. I remember when there was a film produced by MTV called Better Luck Tomorrow which was released in theaters sometime when I was in high school and it featured Chinese-American teens dealing with what other American teens dealt with: drugs, relationships going bad and peer pressure. It was a short-lived film that only attracted almost exclusively Asian-Americans. In every screening of the film, there were only less than five people (if at all) that weren’t of East Asian descent seeing the film.
I remember when I went to the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists with my brother last summer on a Friday (A different selection of Boston’s many museums and attractions offer free entry every Friday throughout the entire summer in order to encourage Bostonians to explore their own city more). We decided on going there, particularly me because my brother isn’t as keen on art as me, since it was located in an area of the city we hardly went to and it was a museum that we hadn’t been to. When Dave (my brother) and I arrived, we saw a lot of young people in front of the museum doing activities, such as making bracelets, and there was a tent with chairs and a TV under it that showed the history of the museum and how it came to be in its current state today. Dave and I were welcomed by the museum staff and we wandered around the grounds before going in. We spent a few hours at the museum. I noticed that Dave and I were the only ones who weren’t black. I pointed out to Dave that the museum contained a lot of talent by the black American community and only black people cared enough to come to take a look. Boston was a large city located in one of the most populated states in the US so I couldn’t understand why there aren’t more people in attendance. We mentioned to each other how it would be nice if a more balanced mix of people came by to read the artists’ biographies and looked at art created from the black American perspective. When I went to events in various colleges founded by black members who arranged events that promoted awareness of the black American experience in America, I recognized that the diversity of the attendees could be a lot better. I didn’t think it helped much to have mostly black members of American society come to these events; I found that events like the one Dave and I went to would benefit more to the people who subconsciously avoid black people when they see them on the street out of fear.
I’ve always been really big on going to markets and events that centered on any certain ethnicity. One summer, I caught sight of Armenian markets while driving down a quiet suburban street one day and I went back there, remembering the way, to take close inspections of what was in those markets and to learn what Armenian cuisine entailed. I went to Russian grocery stores which attracted mostly Eastern European customers and I took my brother to a Turkish grocery once to point out products I remembered seeing in Istanbul and I got my father to come with me to a big festival that celebrated Indian food and culture and my father actually happily sampled some of the food like Gulab Jamun. There were many Chinese supermarkets that always had a majority number of Chinese people come to shop. All of these markets were for anyone to come and shop and, growing up, I used to wish for more different people to experience the wonders of the Chinese supermarket, for instance.
Growing up, I didn’t feel that everyone felt comfortable enough going to certain events and places that represented an ethnic group. More than this, I felt that there was a lack of curiosity; I felt that motivation wasn’t high enough.
Event organizers that promote recognition and awareness of different ethnic groups certainly work hard enough. There are certainly plenty of people who aren’t of the ethnicity represented in an event that participate and have a good time trying something new, like when the Chinese New Year and Mid-Autumn festivities take place in Boston ever winter and late summer or fall, many of Boston’s residents come by Chinatown to check everything out and several attendees aren’t Chinese. I still feel that there isn’t enough willingness in the part of everyone to prioritize going to more cultural events that don’t pertain to their own ethnicity. It’s great to feel proud of being a certain ethnicity and to attend events that regard it in order to remember origins but knowing others’ cultures better especially in a multicultural society such as that of the US is critically important.
Once there was a Jewish bookshop that I visited and took my sweet time in and everyone was Jewish (many of them were Orthodox Jews) and I understood that that shop, like other shops that catered to a particular group of people, had a few customers who stared at me funny but I also understood that that shop was open to the public, and I intended to open myself up to Jewish culture because Boston had a large population of them which prompted me to know something about them.
There were times when I was downtown and noticed the same bookseller who sold African-American literature on the street and, because I read a lot of black American literature by authors such as Sapphire and Omar Tyree, and loved Tyler Perry films in middle and high school, I came by where the man was to look at his collection, I observed that he was trying to attract black customers. He spoke to a couple of black youth holding books in his hands. Some youth stayed to browse and others didn’t.
I was invisible to him.
He inched away from me when he felt I was too close and I realized that I didn’t like how I was treated. He paid attention to black people he saw and didn’t acknowledge my presence. I walked way when it became very clear who his target customers were, which didn’t include me.
Not only were people not motivated to know of anyone different from them but, also, a lot of people I’ve met who work hard to promote more awareness of their ethnicity and culture don’t reach out to people outside of their ethnic background enough. There’s no point in working to raise awareness in those individuals who are already aware of their ethnic or religious groups’ plights. Mainly communicating with those who share the same ethnic group in common defeats the purpose of ‘raising awareness’ and ‘education’.
I understand that a lot of people just aren’t interested in learning about something or someone different. I wish nonetheless that there were more diversity in the memberships of clubs and organizations that represent an ethnicity or religion (I’m of the opinion that club members of the Russian club, for example, don’t have to have any Russian ancestry at all; all members can just work to promote more information on Russian culture and that would be enough to me). I would also like to see more different people come to events that feature any ethnic group or religion.
