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Inclusive Community

Comparative Literature and Diversity

The Comparative Literature Department (COLT) strives at all times to affirm and support the widest possible spectrum of perspectives, voices, backgrounds and abilities. Our discipline is transhistorical, translinguistic, international and transcultural, and our practices are anchored in practices of inquiry, analysis, reflection and critique. For these reasons, fostering an inclusive climate is essential to our work. Our commitment to diversity and inclusiveness extends to staff, faculty, students and all members of the extended COLT community.

Statement Condemning Anti-Asian Violence

The Department of Comparative Literature’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, in collaboration with Professor Roy Chan, Program Faculty in Comparative Literature and member of the Department of East Asian Languages & Literatures, wish to address the recent wave of anti-Asian hate crimes that have imperiled Asians and Asian Americans across the U.S., culminating in the mass murder of six Asian women in Atlanta on March 16, 2021. Although the Atlanta tragedy is among the most visible expressions of racist violence against Asians and Asian Americans, there are countless other anti-Asian crimes that have occurred throughout the country in recent months, which are equally intolerable, from physical assaults to the destruction of property to racist slurs. Although such racially motivated violence has clearly been on the rise over the past year, largely inflamed by the previous administration’s xenophobia and racism, it is important to recognize that such anti-Asian hatred has its own history. As Prof. Roy Chan, who teaches a course on Gender and Sexuality in Modern Chinese Literature at the University of Oregon, reminds us, it is especially important at such moments of crisis to recognize the historical context for such hatred lest history repeat itself:

“Asians in America have, from the beginning of their arrival, been subjected to a racialized and sexualized lens. In Chinese immigrant communities in America of the 19th century, racist fears about the Chinese in general meant that all Chinese women were seen as bearers of vice and immorality; all Chinese women were seen as potential prostitutes. Chinese women who attempted to come over to the US, before and after the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, were subjected to ruthless and invasive interrogation regarding their sexual ‘morality.’ ”

As Prof. Chan notes, “Beginning in the 19th century, we see the formation of a powerful and enduring stereotype of the hypersexualized, ‘exotic,’ and even ‘dangerous’ Asian woman, who becomes a figure of both fascination (‘temptation’) and hatred for White men. US military involvement in Asia, including Japan (WWII), Korea (Korean War), the Philippines (home to US military bases), and Vietnam and Southeast Asia (Vietnam War) led to Asian women in those countries being employed for sex work. Many women from these countries also became war brides of American GIs. These events strengthened the stereotype of the sexualized Asian woman who served the fantasies of White men. Representations of Asian women in the media and popular culture have often depicted them as sexually subservient to White men, or depicted as dangerous ‘dragon ladies.’ If Asian women were hypersexualized, Asian men endured the opposite trajectory, represented as ‘less’ masculine.”

We join Prof. Chan in asserting that “We can never understand current events (and the historical context through which stereotypes, fantasies, and resentments arise and take form) if we close them off from the historic trajectory from which they are formed.” Only by historically contextualizing such racial hatred against Asians and Asian Americans will we be in a better position to understand not only the origins and persistence of such anti-Asian racist violence but also how such violence continues to terrorize and traumatize Asian and Asian American communities throughout the U.S. It is our collective hope not only that the perpetrators of such domestic extremist violence will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, but also that through education, Americans will come to recognize that if one truly values freedom and the rights guaranteed by the Constitution, one must stand up against such domestic extremism and racist violence. As Prof. Chan underscores, in order “to envision the dream of humanity that is redemptive of all people, we need to see the interconnectedness of all these injustices.”

A Statement from the Comparative Literature Faculty, Spring 2020

We support the ongoing protests against the systemic racism and violence perpetrated against Black lives for more than 400 years in the United States.

As researchers and scholars, we acknowledge our obligation to reflect collectively and individually on the pernicious effects of racism and how legacies of colonialism, imperialism, and slavery have led us to this moment.

 In our capacities as teachers and mentors we offer our support, but–mindful of the privilege our positions afford us–we also look to those who carry the historical burden of these recent events for guidance and inspiration. 

 In this same spirit, we endorse the demands made by the Black Student Collective. 

The IDEAL Framework

Since 2016, the University of Oregon has worked within the IDEAL Framework. As part of the University’s commitment to the five pillars of IDEAL (Inclusion. Diversity. Evaluation. Achievement. Leadership.), each campus unit was instructed to create a standing Diversity Committee and devise a Diversity Action Plan (DAP). The most recent version of the DAP for the Comparative Literature Department can be found here.

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