To the Editor:

Re: “A3C: Benefits Do Not Outweigh the Costs,” Opinion, March 4

The author’s complaints about the A3C are so unoriginal that they’ve annoyed us students in support of A3C for ten years. (Calls for the center started in the years leading up to the Asian/Asian American Campus Climate Task Force report in 2004, and increased even more after.) Here, we dispel myths that members of our community, both Asian/Asian American (A3) and otherwise, continue to hold about A3C.

1. The A3 community is so broad that it’s an irrelevant category for building consciousness. It’s true that the A3 community varies by gender, ethnicity, religion, class, sexual orientation, citizenship, immigrant status and other important identifiers. Scholars in fields ranging from ethnic studies to critical theory struggle to articulate the dynamic A3 identity. If anything, this is why it’s important for us to build and utilize this center as a space for exploration and self-identification.

2. A3C is self-segregating, and will only offer support for A3 students with mental health needs. A3C will offer a unique safe space that will serve Cornell students regardless of their racial background and mental health needs. The center will benefit both A3 and non-A3 students through programming that affirms identity and builds bridges with other communities.

3. A3C will perpetuate racism by making A3 students look incompetent. Aren’t A3 students successful here? Our demands for the center do not suggest that A3 students are struggling because of our race. We all have unique needs. Wanting them addressed in a space that affirms our identity does not perpetuate racism. The model minority myth, the idea that the A3 community has no special needs, perpetuates racism. Historically, the A3 community has been exploititatively lauded for success and self-sufficiency, and so for us to express that we do have needs, that we are not a silent, complacent minority, is actually a form of resistance.

If anything, the column’s ideas reinvigorate demands for the A3C. A single person or even the three of us, cannot claim to represent the needs of the community, but the facts and ten years of students in support of the A3C can.

Irene Li ’12

Olivia Tai ’10

Kevin Cheng ’10