Involvement with ethnic studies

Family interrelations between mother and father Christian gatherings in homes Nickname Not bringing shame to family Little interaction with parents Life in camp as teenager Politics in ethnic studies Center for Japanese American Studies in community Involvement with theater Involvement with ethnic studies Involvement with strike Relationship with S.I. Hayakawa How ethnic studies strike affected him Context affects meaning Past ties to present situation in Middle East Role of the Japanese American National Museum Gordon's parents' experience in prison Testing assumptions of Japanese scholars

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The students were pressing for any kind of classes that had to do with ethnic experience. And so the Dean of Social Sciences got me to be the faculty member for one of the initial classes that had to do with the ethnic experience. And all this time, you know, I’m not knowing what’s happening very much, because I had just come back from Africa. And then so when the Dean told me that he was going to sponsor a course in the Behavioral Social Science School on Ethnic Experience. So I says, “OK, I’ll take over the class.”

Date: January 7, 2004
Location: California, US
Interviewer: Art Hansen
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum.

education ethnic studies