Mikado More Offense Than Fun

to the editors:

i am writing concerning the recent production of ogasp's the mikado (or the town of titipu).

i found the production to be offensive and demeaning. it was a blatant form of "blackface," or in this case, "yellowface." blackface in minstrelsy was a very popular form of entertainment [to white people] in the pre and post-emancipation united states. in minstrelsy, white people would paint their faces in order to "poke fun" at what they considered Blacks to be. these depictions were very firmly based on malicious and deep-rooted racism and stereotypes. to this day, we find more subtle but equally pervasive remnants of blackface in the media as well as our everyday lives; only now, we find that this practice is not only directed towards Blacks, but towards Latina/os, Native Americans, Arabs and many other people of color in different but similar ways.

the mikado was an example of this variation of blackface in its yellow, (east) Asian form: stretching and reinforcing stereotypes about "orientals" through using Japanese and other made-up "chinky-changy" words, toting stereotypical yet incorrectly worn kimonos ("that won't stay closed!"), depicting docile giggly women, advertising it as "better than sex!," among many other things. in the review's coverage of the production, it was stressed often that mikado was "the victorian depiction of Japan." and remembering an argument used in a previous op-ed article, one might think that the audience "knows better" than to think that these stereotypes are true.

in an age where Japanese and many other Asians are thought of as either rich business men or exotic sex kittens, "the victorian depiction of Japan" is not innocuous; in fact, it is related, relevant and responsible for hate that still happens today. although we all are "educated" enough (maybe) to know that not all Japanese (if you could call the characters Japanese, last time i checked, "sing-sing" and "pooh-bah" were never part of the Japanese vocabulary) wear kimonos everyday or run around with swords, we (meaning Japanese and Japanese Americans, as well as Asians as a larger group) still face overbearing stereotypes as the exotic, cunning, docile but untrustworthy, hyper-feminized, demonized alien member of society. did anyone hear about the recent racially motivated killings in pennsylvania leaving two Asians dead? did anyone hear about the incident at SUNY Binghamton where several white students assaulted two Asian American students while yelling racial slurs?

i'm very sure that many members of ogasp thought that the production was done "all in good fun" and did not mean for it to be "political." regardless of the performance, the very act of "non-political" intent is in itself a political decision; one that lacks sensitivity, responsibility and accountability.

--k. terumi shorb, College senior

Hi-O-Hi Not Truly Representative

To the Editors:

OK, the yearbook. Now I've been as cynical as anyone else about the concept of yearbooks in general; I didn't get my picture taken as an underclassman, and I didn't chip in the extra 10 cents for the autograph section. But now that it's here, I admit that I had a few stored up sentimental expectations about the book that will sit on a shelf in my future garage or basement and be pored through by nosy kids, possibly my own. I'm willing to put aside little complaints like the cover color, because after all, nothing is worse than the liquid-baby-poo color of the new course catalog that I, being a senior, don't have to deal with. I don't even mind that last year's senior pictures were in color and ours are black and white. But according to this yearbook, we at Oberlin spend 50 percent of our time at Drag Ball and the other 50 percent of our time in Wilder Bowl, embracing. I don't have a problem with people who really do spend all their time at Drag Ball or in Wilder Bowl embracing, but does that really reflect anyone's complete Oberlin experience? Where are the shots of really cold people walking to class in an October blizzard? I wouldn't mind more pictures of professors, because they have a lot of influence on my life. What about fun stuff like Monday night at the Inn? Years from now, when I search through the candids for people I know, what I really want to see is dinner in Longman or a Vibe concert. Maybe a Ministry party. Experiences most of us have had, and that we can all at least relate to having something analogous to. Instead, I see about 50 pictures of the same six white underclassmen, probably all taken in Burton at three in the morning, probably all friends of the editors. And Tuukka Hess, really really big, with his name spelled wrong. And a page of just feet. Perusing this bad excuse for an art major's junior exhibition, I long for the cheesy, predictable days of high school yearbooks when you could look through and know that somewhere, anywhere, would be your picture and those of your friends. I mean, what happened to student organizations? I realize we're not in high school anymore, and Oberlin is a lot bigger than my high school, but where are the staff members? How about Nancy? Those women, some lovely, some evil, in the Registrar's office? Call me crazy, but when I think of my four years at Oberlin, I don't think of Drag Ball or Wilder Bowl all that much (although TGIF is great when the weather's nice, those two weeks of the year, usually when I have finals). I think of getting through the dish line at Stevenson quickly enough to bypass the smell, pizza night at Asia Co-op, student bands, Quarter Beers, Brother Jed, the Science Library, Keep on Halloween, Primitive Streak, work, work and work. Nowhere is any of that in this yearbook. Nowhere in this yearbook is my Oberlin.

--Toby Daly-Engel, College senior

Oberlin Acted Wisely

To the Members of the Oberlin College Community:

I want to take a moment to express this department's appreciation for the restraint and model behavior you displayed during the demonstration in Tappan Square on Tuesday, May 9. It would have been very easy to allow the misguided beliefs of the members of the Phelps delegation to incite you into potential criminal behavior. Fortunately, you were above that. You made what could have been an ugly situation into one which only seemed to generate understanding and support. Again, I thank you for that.

--Thomas A. Miller, Captain of Police, Oberlin Police Department

Planning Committee Disregarded Concerns of Many

To the Editors:

Dear members of the FUN NOT PHELPS planning committee,

Firstly, to the members of the committee who are openly straight:

I do believe that sexuality is a fluid thing, but your experience is much different from mine. You cannot appropriate the experience of growing up queer and make it your own. For this reason, it is possible that you do not have the sensibility to make decisions about what posters, activities and responses are appropriate or not appropriate for queer people to use in response to Phelps. All of you should have been aware and conscious of this before you expressed your support or opposition to students' proposals.

To all members of the committee, on behalf of me and some of my queer friends:

You do not have the right to limit our responses to Fred Phelps. Of course, you have not limited us in a blatant fashion, but you have discouraged and expressed your opposition to many of our ideas. It is an insult to imply that queer students do not have the clearness of mind to react against Phelps without endangering themselves. It is also insensitive and prejudiced of you to encourage all students to stay as far away from Phelps as possible. It is commendable that you made available the information necessary for one to react to Phelps without risking the possibility of legal repercussions, but along with encouraging students to stay away from Phelps' group, you also discouraged activist queer students from responding, and your messages made it extremely difficult for queer activists to find support.

You do not seem to realize that some people need to confront the Westboro clan. Some people have had to confront idiocy, bigotry and irrational hatred throughout their entire lives. Some people do not have

the ability to ignore Phelps' organization. Some people do not have the privilege to choose between dealing with intolerance and listening to the Obertones, having a BBQ or participating in a contact improv jam with the liberal Queen of Appropriation, Ann Cooper Albright. Some people have had to deal with parents, relatives, friends and a religious upbringing which espouses the same sort of violent thinking that Phelps and his clan make visceral. These people should be encouraged to speak their mind, display their love and stand as close as they want to Fred Phelps. These people should be protected and warned, but they should not be censored. They should be encouraged despite and because of the anxiety their situation creates. Your actions do not fool me into thinking that you have the best intentions to protect individual students. Evidently, you seem to me less concerned with individual students than you are with protecting the reputation and publicity of Oberlin College.

Some people chose to appropriate the two (only two, what a queer haven this is!) queer couples kissing in front of Phelps' group by holding up a sign next to us which read "Queer Mecca." I should let you know that the queer kissing you saw across the street from Fred Phelps does not represent a Queer Mecca. Rather, it represents an ongoing STRUGGLE, and no one (except those of us kissing) has the right to call it his or her own. The planning committee seems to be oblivious (I think, in denial) that there is a queer struggle on this campus. That queer struggle is the reason we were kissing on the street. We were not kissing

to be used as the poster-people for Oberlin Queer Mecca College. And yet, in all of the articles I've read in the newspapers, our pictures are shown or we are referred to as "two gay couples kissing" followed by a statement that our kiss-in was sponsored or planned by the LGBTU, Office of Chaplains, MRC, Office of the Dean of Students, etc. etc. etc. We organized the kiss-in ourselves, with no organizational support from the committee (although I must say that I did receive advice and concern from some of the search committee members, advice and concern which were mostly discouraging).

Oberlin is not a Queer Mecca. It seems to me that Oberlin College is a middle-of-the-road, pseudo-liberal haven for people who wish never to offend anyone. This ambivalence is mind-numbing. To quote Don Clark, "Tolerance is good, but appreciation is ultimately required." In some cases with the lovely PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE HAVE A PARTY INSTEAD planning committee, not even tolerance is put into practice. There was a series of posters which a dear friend of mine sent to the poster (sub)committee to ask for assistance and support. The posters were dismissed as offensive and hateful, and according to one committee member, all members of the poster committee felt this way. That one person took it upon herself to throw away all of the posters, posters which cost money and were time-consuming to make. The person who threw away the posters implies that she did so for no other reason except because they were "offensive." Throwing away a student's creation based on your own beliefs of what is appropriate and what is not is disrespectful and intolerant. The justification for this was stated to my friend: "If those posters were hung up..., half the campus would have been on your case, and that would have reflected negatively on everyone involved." This statement reflects the insensitivity of the committee which I mentioned before: Evidently, the committee is less concerned with the individual student's needs than with the need to protect the reputation and publicity of Oberlin College. The actions of the members of poster committee are more offensive, dangerous and insulting than those posters could possibly have been. (It seems to me that the posters, which read, "Give Jesus a blow job," were found offensive and hateful and were thrown away because the members of the committee were irrationally afraid of their erotic message.) Besides, since when has the progressive appreciation of sexual diversity included the stipulation, "so long as it doesn't offend half the population?"

As a committee, your level of tolerance is dismal. Your self-appointed representation of the Oberlin College queer and queer-affirmative community is discouraging and dangerous to many of the queer students on this campus. With your FUN NOT PHELPS campaign, you have depoliticized the situation and depoliticized my life. Throughout this whole situation, you have laughed at my struggle. But now you get to say that you were on the committee which planned Oberlin's response to the notorious, right-wing, GodHatesFags.com church. People are still patting themsleves on the back and saying, "We did such a great job!" And what is the first thing you are going to do to reward yourself?

--Corey Dargel, Conservatory fourth-year