Students, faculty, and others crowded into Nelson Auditorium on Wednesday evening to hear a lecture from award-wining Asian-American journalist Helen Zia. In "Notes of a Journalist: Racial Profiling, Scapegoating, and the US Media in 2001," Zia discussed the current state of international affairs and its relationship to heightening racial tensions in the US.
The former executive editor of Ms. Magazine stressed that America must take responsibility for preventing the use and acceptance of racial profiling.
Allowing government officials to treat and prosecute people differently solely based on their race "violates multiple constitutional rights," Zia said.
Many in the audience gasped when Zia discussed the social acceptance of racial profiling and discrimination. She cited a poll on appropriate punishment for suspects in anti-American activity or terrorist acts as evidence.
"One third of several thousand [New York State residents] polled favor internment camps...and two thirds say it is okay to use racial profiling," she said.
In her experiences as a journalist for Ms., Zia said she learned about the role of the media in educating the populous about the global and domestic situation.
"Seventy-eight percent of the American public gets its information about the world from TV news, and a smaller percentage from the Sunday paper," Zia said.
While she criticized the media's overall approach to the events of the last month and a half, Zia has been pleasantly surprised by the attention given to the issue of racial profiling.
Last week, White House spokesmen warned news media executives against publishing propaganda and possible coded messages that might encourage anti-American sentiment and activity. Zia said that as soon as government attempts to censor the media, the American people are not receiving the full truth.
Zia also said that the public has let fear and racism overtake compassion and sensibility. More than 700 hate crimes - acts of domestic terrorism, as Zia called them - have been committed against American citizens since Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Although most attacks have been committed against citizens of Middle Eastern descent, Zia referred to instances of violence against Sheiks, Asians, and Hispanics in emphasizing the far-reaching effects of intolerance.
She pointed to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and the imprisonment of Chinese-American Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Li for suspected espionage as past atrocities of scapegoating and racism.
The Taiwanese-American scientist pleaded guilty to mishandling the equivalent of hundreds of thousands pages of data, but was released with the judge's apologies after the information was found to have been less important as the government claimed.
Zia's lecture was part of an ongoing effort to increase educational opportunities in Asian-American studies. The Asian American Curricular Transformation Project, comprised of 15 faculty members and one student, has been working to further develop the University's American studies curriculum to include more Asian American subject matter.
Junior Joan Williams attended Zia's lecture after being encouraged by her "Race in America" professor Jean Wu, a member of the planning group for the Asian American Curricular Transformation Project.
"I thought her lecture was very important," Williams said. "I think more people who aren't of Asian-American descent should have been there. There were a lot of professors and minority students, but not a lot of white students."
"I found myself feeling very frustrated, yet in complete agreement with Ms. Zia," freshman Michelle Friedman said. "What can I do? And the answer really is that all I can do is learn - learn about other races, cultures, ethnicities; about what the differences are between us, and about what the similarities are."
Zia authored My Country Versus Me: The First-Hand Account by the Los Alamos Scientist Who Was Falsely Accused, which will be released in 2002. It follows her 2000 publication of Asian-American Dreams - The Emergence of an American People.
In her speech, Zia stressed the importance of educating students about Asian American history, as well as the histories of other minority groups within the US. Such learning facilitates understanding of the current issues pertaining to the different ethnic groups.
"Who records history?" Zia questioned. "It's the newspapers, the journalists...faulty chroniclers at best." She said that "the lens of the people who chronicle the news" limits the objective and complete documentation of history, and that education is the most important tool in widening that lens.
Born and raised in New Jersey, Zia understands the struggle of minorities trying to find their place within American society. "The implicit thing was that I was not American; I was not a real American," Zia said, recalling her childhood. In a time of patriotism, Zia said, the question arises as to "who are the real Americans."
"America has the richest variety of culture in the world and we should all be proud of this," she said.
"You are the ones who are going to be shaping America...with the conscience and voice you raise today," she said.
