Mixed Race Scholar and Curator
By the end of this year, the Japanese American community will likely be 'majority mixed'. Telling this story in a way that avoids images of 'rainbow children' on the one hand and 'cultural suicide' on the other is tricky business. Join us to discuss the process of choosing (and then, telling) the narrative(s) that takes you where you want to go.
Thank you Cindy for coming out of "retirement" to speak to the class about your wonderful work investigating the resurgence of eugenics. Also, thank you for sharing your experiences curating, "Invisible/Visible: Japanese American History." It was a thrill to have the author of the classic work "Invisible Monsters" be up close and personal for the students. Hope you will return.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Cindy Nakashima for visiting our class and presenting about your experiences as a mixed race person as well as the topic of eugenics! I didn't really know much about eugenics until your presentation and was super fascinated with what you had to offer. I had the pleasure of doing a bit of research about the mixed race Japanese community and really connected with what you had to say. Thank you for pointing out that while the Japanese community is not very welcoming towards the mixed race individuals, they still actually do recognize a few, like the example you gave us in class. One question that I did have for you was, do you personally hope on changing anything regarding some mixed race issues of your community possibly through your efforts as a curator or by other means?
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for taking your time and visiting our class! I did not know a lot about mixed-race Japanese community prior to your visit so it was definitely an eye-opening experience for me. I did, however, heard about the exhibit you curated but unfortunately, I was not in the country at the time. I was wondering how did you decide what goes in the exhibit? What was the elimination process? And if you don't mind me asking but what was your budget/ who funded the exhibit? And did they limit you from putting in specific things? Like for the Operation Babylift at the Presidio was funded by the state so the curators had few limitations.
ReplyDeleteMy fellow classmates and I thank you very much for taking the time to come out and speak to us! I enjoyed reading your segment in Maria P.P. Root's "Racially Mixed People in America". I had no idea how problematic Early America was regarding the perception of mixed-race people. But it give me hope knowing there is a movement of "traitors striking back" developing for the last 10 years. Where do you imagine mixed race people will stand in the next 10 years? And as I am interested in becoming an art handler and curatorial work, do you have an artistic background that helped you be more skilled in your profession?
ReplyDeleteThank you Cindy for taking the time to visit our class and speaking to us about Eugenics and how it ties into the Japanese American community. I loved the books on Eugenics that you brought to class. It's unfathomable to many of my peers, but you had the physical proof right there on the table! It was surreal reading some of the stuff inside the books. I'm still curious about how you acquired these books. How hard were they to find? Where did you find them?
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for coming and lecturing the class about eugenics and sharing a topic that is a huge realization for everyone. I myself am not mixed race, but I do understand the concept of being a race traitor. I learned a lot more about eugenics thanks to you. I do have a few questions to ask you. Do you believe that the topic of mixed race communities and eugenics should be taught in schools prior to college? What do you believe is the best age for someone to start learning about it?
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for coming back to classroom and show us all the works you have been working on. The topic about Japanese-American community has always been an interesting topic that I have been interested in, and it was very eye-opening to see all the books from back in the days and how the eugenics have developed into what we experience right now. I was wondering how can you find all the books that is from very long time ago? How do you know where they are and whether they exist? I also very enjoyed how the class was based upon all the physical evidence and photos on the power-points. The old navy commercial shocked me how much people are still very negative about mixed-race marriage and we still have a lot of work to do towards it. I wish I could go to the exhibit you had. Wish we can have another chance to talk about how the extinction of Japanese-American community can be solved. Thank you so much for the class!
ReplyDeleteDear Ms. Cindy Nakashima,
ReplyDeleteThank you for taking some time off of your personal time to spend some time giving a guest lecture to us at UC Davis. It was a great review on eugenics, but it was also a great new experience. I was saddened when we found out that your presentation was not saved properly prior to your appearance. Nevertheless, the spontaneous/winged presentation made the entire lecture a more enjoyable discussion. I hope to see you again in the future.
I have some questions, since the eugenics movement and the issues surrounding mixed-race are becoming more prominent, nearing the mainstream, would you consider coming out of retirement? Or would any of your children consider become activists in the future?
Again, thank you!
Thank you so much for coming to speak in front of our class and tell us about your interest and briefly about your research in eugenics. This was a term and topic I've never heard to much about until basically my time spent in this class. Perhaps it was mentioned to me before, but it's never stuck to me as much as it has after taking this class so being able to hear about the subject from someone who has done research on it is very eye-opening and interesting since it's about the world that surrounds me. I wanted to know what do you do with the information that you find from the books. Do you simply take it in and spread the information or do you use it to apply towards something else?
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