By: Scotty Williams II
David Tanaka works at the Center for Multicultural Academic Excellence (CMAE) at the University of Oregon (U of O). He works alongside a handful of other tutors to help multicultural students succeed academically at the U of O. Overall David likes to think that the center is, “An open environment where that idea of race evaporates away.” A typical day at CMAE for David is filled with math problems and laughs. David and Donovan (the writing tutor) pride themselves on trying to get the most laughs each day. Currently David is in the lead, but it was not always like that. Looking back on his experiences in Oregon, things have not always been fun and games.
In Hawaii everyone was very open to differences amongst people. David describes his high school friendships as, “We were just a bunch of kids bashing on each other for laughs. If people heard the way me and my friends joked around they’d call it racist, and that’s weird to me.” As a result, a typical day at home for David involved spending time at the beach fishing for grub and telling jokes about race. This was David’s life up until he came to the University of Oregon a few years ago.
A key moment for David came early on in his freshmen year. David introduced himself to a class mate in one of his classes and they began talking about life before lecture started. Eventually the idea of race came up, and David broke down his nationality for him. David explained to him that his family is Japanese-Hawaiian and the guy responded, “Do you think it’s weird that your people bombed your people? People over there don’t give you funny look because of that?” This infuriated David and for the first time since coming to the mainland he realized, “…it was kind of like being laughed at instead of with, and I didn’t like it.” This experience pushed David to want to help his fellow student avoid being in the same situation.
Moving toward the future, the tutors at the CMAE are working to create an inclusive culture at the center. In the words of Donovan Neal, the writing tutor at CMAE, “David is bringing the Hawaii lifestyle to U of O one study session at a time!” Over time David hopes that CMAE will start to feel more like Hawaii. He wants to create a place where everyone hangs out and joke and have fun without personalizing everything that is said. A place where your racial identity can act as a conversation starter, not something to avoid.