“White Liberal Racism: an Oxymoron?” The panel will discuss whether there is such a thing as “white liberal racism,” and if it does, what forms this takes, especially within the context of the Five Colleges and people’s experiences as Asian Americans. Larry Hunt, Human Resource Director of Smith College, will share his own insights to the issue as “progressive” institutions like Smith College face the challenge of expanding the proportion of minority hires, and how policies even from these so-called “liberal” and “progressive” institutions may inadvertently veil a form of racism that may go unchallenged or unquestioned. Richard Chu, Five College Assistant Professor of History at UMass Amherst, and Falguni Sheth, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Political Theory at Hampshire College, will describe their experiences teaching in liberal but predominantly white institutions, and dissect how administrative policies, the tenuring process, and the core curricula of their institutions may also reflect a form of racism.

I’m especially interested in the last one because as a member of this community, we deal with issues around white liberal racism all the time. And I think what happens in this largely academic environment translates to things that happen in the larger community, Full disclosure–my husband and I are both white, raising our son who is also a strong, opinionated, confident, happy Korean-American kid.

Sometimes, this area doesn’t know what to make of us as a family, even when certain people think that we’ll “get” them because we are in the special white liberal club. Just because I am part of a multi-racial family doesn’t mean that while I am grocery shopping, my son and I want to talk about your friend who adopted a child from Guatemala 20 years ago so you really know how it is. Nope. Sorry friend. And your friend, who has a daughter who was left at a train station in Kazakhstan? You know, I just need bagels and toilet paper. (and why do these encounters most often happen at Whole Foods?)

We get it from all sides, from white academics who want to school us, or connect with us in whatever arbitrary way they have chosen, but also from some in the Korean-American academic community who often want to present us with a very particular vision of what it is to be Korean-American and what our son “should” be.

We know it’s not unique to this area. No matter what, and no matter where we are, as a multi-cultural, adopted, Korean-American man, our son will be forging his own way through all of this and hopefully, owning whatever vision he choses of his identity. As his parents, our job is to talk with him, to process these events with him, to be there for him, and of course, to connect him with others who have made their way along it and to let him know that the choosing of his individual path is perfectly legitimate.

And oh yeah, hope you can make it to the conference!