Michèle Oshima
I am often read as white. This misreading has led to ugly situations. Even here at MIT, I’ve encountered awkward uncomfortable situations when community members (of various races) assumed I was white. Sometimes when people see my last name, they add an apostrophe after the O reminding me that I’m in the Boston metropolitan area, home to many of Irish descent. When I’ve disabused people of their misconception that I’m 100% white, they remark, “But you have green eyes.” Then the conversation digresses into a discussion on genetics, especially here at MIT.
I am biracial or Hapa, meaning part Asian. My mother is German, naturalized American. My mother was born in Düsseldorf, but her family got bombed out during WWII. So her family moved to Boppard am Rhein where she was raised until the age of 14 when her family emigrated to Minnesota. My father is Nisei. This means second generation in the Japanese American community. My father was born in California to Japanese immigrants. My father’s childhood was spent in part in Topaz, Utah, a US concentration camp. After the war, he moved to Minnesota when his family joined two of his older sisters who were released early from Topaz to be maids. FYI, after the war, Japanese Americans were discouraged from returning to their homes so there wouldn’t be concentrated communities on the West Coast.
Growing up there were very few other kids in my suburban NJ neighborhood who were part Asian. Later in the mid-1980s when I was a student at Wellesley College, I came to know a few Hapas. At this time, I was confronted with the idea of biracial ethnic discrimination. I’ve heard parallel stories in the Black and Latino communities. MIT students tell me they still face discrimination at not being Chinese enough or Indian enough. Unlike my time in school, MIT has a Hapa Club! I’ve also heard that there is another student club for people of mixed heritage.
FYI, forms at MIT don’t always recognize the multiplicity of experience and background of students, staff, and faculty. On an application or employment form, you may have to choose between “Asian American” or “White” with no “Multiracial” box. In that case, which one do you pick? Which one is better for you; or for MIT? I recently saw an application where a student was able to check off 3 races and fill in a fourth in the “Other” space. When I was hired back in 1995 by MIT, I heard that the EEOC committee considered it a plus that I was Asian American.
In my positions in Women’s Studies (1995-2002) and in the Office of the Arts (2002-present), I’m pleased to have helped bring Artists of mixed descent to campus. By broadening the spectrum of presenters, I hope to expand the limited vision of some members of the MIT community. It is interesting to learn how different groups have variously embraced Creole, Mestiza, Afro Caribbean or Hapa identity.
Being mistaken as white can lead to pedagogical moments. Fortunately, MIT is a great place to turn lemons into lemonade.