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ican” no matter how much sweat and blood they pour into this land to nurture it, no matter how hard they try to blend into the “mainstream,” no matter how much accent they lose and how many pairs of Levi’s they wear. What is so tragic about this geography of the “other” is that it is deeply entrenched. Whenever somebody of Asian origin experiences something negative in their dealings with “full Americans,” a doubt creeps in whether founded or not - a doubt of discrimination, a doubt of mistreatment. As they are reduced to the rank of outcasts, a sense of rejection and isolation suddenly descends like a heavy burden ready to crush their humanity. Recently,
I received a call from a friend, a geographer from India teaching at a
University in Iowa. He is a tenured professor, but was facing a real prospect
of losing his job. He told me that the program with which he was associated
was being eliminated from his university. As a result of this university
action, his name was on the chopping block, although he happened to be the
only geographer in the program. What was so curiously eerie about this story
was that of all the professors associated with that program, he was the only
one who was being targeted. In essence, he was having a real hard time
understanding this seemingly biased action plan. What was disturbing to him even more - and to me - was the fact that he had received little support from the executive director of the Association of American Geographers (AAG). Such a lack of sup- |
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port raises doubts in one’s mind as to why no action was taken, especially given the fact that what was being eliminated was not just a Geography position, but the whole Geography component. After all, one of the key roles of the AAG is to try to protect the academic interest and status of Geography. Was this absence of support directly related to the fact that the only Geography position at the University was being occupied by a geographer of Indian origin? So his loss was no big loss; after all he is a member of the “other” category - an undesirable element. Or was it because the AAG has no interest in protecting Geography as an academic program or because the director feels powerless against university administrators who are bent on eliminating Geography from their curricula? Or was it simply an innocent oversight on the part of the director? Of course, we will never known the true answer to these questions. Unfortunately, in the tortured history of this geography of the “other” that we call America, we can’t help but let doubts creep into our minds that it is perhaps the ghost of the “other” that is chasing us once again. Regardless of the reality, we can’t afford to let this ghost consume us. We have the responsibility to not only overcome this ghost for our own sanity, but also do everything we can to uphold the social ideals that this geography (America) represents no matter how tormented its history might be. This is our home now, so let’s improve it in our own way for the collective welfare of this land. |
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