wonk uoy naht noitceffa erom deen I

As stated previously, it is of great importance that the word "History" was removed from the College of William & Mary's course "Asian American History in Action: Theater and Film" (though the History is still included on Blackboard). I know what some of you are thinking - Francis/the professor is a visionary, he's not going to take this without protest. So what if "history" is removed - he'll teach it anyway.

Yes, and no.

Of course he's still going to teach the course as it was intended to be, Asian American history heavily emphasized (as it should be). But because the ends are the same does NOT mean that the means (or obstacles to such) can be ignored - no, pardoned. The efforts of the class's collective blogs are to bring attention to the principle of the name and what it stands for, not simply for the education we receive from Francis.

History is about power. Whoever writes the history books has the power to change them. Furthermore, when something is written, it gives it the appearance of validity; also, paper is "permanent" and will live on where spoken words may not.
Knowledge is power. Whoever has that knowledge can use it, for good or ill, and can see through petty acts of suppression to either further them, or stop them. We're being given, and relating to you, this knowledge that needs be used to stop the spiriting away of great parts of our past.

And what really infuses a being with the utmost power? A name.

Think about it - your name holds together your identity, as an individual and culturally, and affirms you as a human being. During the slave trades, the kidnapped Africans were stripped of their names and given new ones by their white "masters," taking away their right to be who they were as Africans and labeling them more as objects. Immigrants to the United States often had name-changes because the officials at Ellis and Angel Islands couldn't, or wouldn't, spell the original names correctly. This was reinforced by census takers who either reaffirmed the new name by their spelling, or could have even changed it again. Sometimes immigrants were asked to change their names completely to something more "American"; sometimes they did this of their own volition anyway, to blend in better (a luxury afforded to Europeans).

In changing the name of the course, there has been an attempt to reduce its power as a precedent.

Francis asked, "Why does Takaki use numbers" in his writing? Numbers hold a great deal of power, too - many times, numbers are indisputable (and so, for other numbers that could be debated, lends the appearance of hard truth), and in this case the numbers express populations of Asian Americans. While they may not be exact, the general accuracy is still highly pertinent. And why? Because the high population numbers prove that there exists a critical mass of Asian Americans in this country - "enough people who give a shit" (or should) to make these efforts worthwhile.

Print and numbers suggest validity. Many times, if we see something in print, we automatically assume it must be true. There is the human instinct of hope - we want to believe it's true. We want to believe that people wouldn't lie to us, especially concerning something as sacred as history. The "hardcore" media has grown weak and become partisan rather than having the sole goal of discovering the truth at any cost. Articles and newsreports have bias in them, and the media has become more of a business and more about ratings than perhaps it was ever, ever intended to be. In this day and age, we all must question "truth," question the paper. Everyone has an agenda. Even we bloggers have an agenda. I'll tell you right now what mine is - it's to hopefully inspire you to dig deeper than you're "told to," to start noticing prejudices, and to realize that Asian Americans are not getting the recognition that they deserve and need as American citizens. Question everything; question me. Even when you're in doubt, I've reached you - you're thinking.