Academic Freedom Restricted in Name of Academic Freedom

NEW VOICES EDITORIAL, OPINION

It takes a lot for the Association For Asian American Studies to make international headlines. The AAAS is a group of academics within the fields of Asian and Asian-American Studies who work to advance the fields of Asian Studies and Asian-American Studies. Not exactly the kind of organization regularly covered by CNN. A quick Google search of that organization, however, turns up myriad articles from the past few weeks. Last month, they became the first academic organization in the United States to endorse an academic boycott of Israeli universities — and they did so unanimously.

We have a few questions:

• Why is an organization whose mission is to promote better understanding of “Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, Hawai’ian, Southeast Asian, South Asian, Pacific Islander, and other groups,” according to their website, taking a stance on Israel-Palestine?
• How did a large group of scholars unanimously agree on anything, let alone something so controversial?
• And how does the AAAS reconcile support for “the protected rights of students and scholars everywhere to engage in research and public speaking about Israel-Palestine” with advocacy work making that engagement more difficult for students and scholars in at Israeli universities (which, last we checked, are part of “everywhere”)?

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Jewz in the Newz

By Nate Bloom

Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star

JewishWorldReview.com | ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME The 2013 induction ceremony for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was held on April 18 and, on Saturday, May 18, at 9PM, HBO will broadcast ceremony highlights (many encore showings). Three tribe members were inducted: RANDY NEWMAN, 69; GEDDY LEE, 59 (as a member of the three-man Canadian rock band, "Rush"); and LOU ADLER, 79.


Newman, who began as a singer-songwriter, has mostly been a film score composer since 1981. He's been nominated for twenty Oscars (won twice)-- and while he has only had one pop hit ("Short People"), his songs (like "I Think It's Going to Rain Today") have been recorded by a who's who of pop/rock singers. His 1974 song, "Louisiana 1927," about a great flood, became virtually the theme song for Hurricane Katrina (2005) benefits.


Lee, the band's bassist and lead vocalist, is an icon for progressive rock devotees and there's been much grumbling about the band's wait to get into the Hall. Lee was born Gary Lee Weinrib, the son of two concentration camp survivors. He's referenced his parents' experience in a couple of "Rush" songs. In 1995, he accompanied his mother on a trip to Bergen-Belsen to mark the 50th anniversary of the camp's liberation.


Adler, inducted as a non-performer, has worn many hats. His record company discovered the Mamas and the Papas. He was a mentor to CAROLE KING, 71, who sang a song in his honor at the ceremony. He produced the great (for-charity) 1967 Monterey Pop festival, which showcased incredibly talented new faces in rock music, like Jimi Hendrix. On top of all this, Adler had the great sense (and great mazel) to buy up the rights to the stage version of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and turn it into a movie. Adler, by the way, is the guy who always sits courtside at Lakers' games, next to Jack Nicholson, and Nicholson was at the HOF ceremony.

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From Amy to Aviva: My Journey From Bullying Target to School Faculty

Two months ago, New Voices published an article about childhood bullying and its life-long effects. We put out a call for our readers to send in their own stories, of bullying and of what that bullying means to them now; of these stories, we chose the one that resonated with us most strongly. That story is what follows.  by Aviva Perlman

Then:

I can’t recall when or how the bullying started. I know something changed when I was nine and I had to start another school for fourth grade. I was finding it difficult to make friends. I was never wanted at lunch tables and in classrooms groups; I was rarely invited to birthday parties and rarely had play dates.  At first, none of this really bothered me.  I figured it was simply from being a new kid and that sooner or later things would fall into place.  But then the whispering started, and the laugh, and then the stares.  I don’t exactly know about of what they were making fun of me, but it didn’t matter.  My sentence had been written. I was marked. Once you are marked, it’s very hard to change that status.

My confidence and self-esteem—things I didn’t even know existed—plummeted, and my paranoia grew.  I no longer wanted to put myself out there or volunteer for anything, and whenever I saw someone whisper, I always thought it was about me.

Along came fifth grade; the whispers and sneering followed me. One summer away from school can’t erase the mark.  I quickly pounced on making friends with the new kids—being nice and offering them a place to sit at lunch.  However, once the other classmates deemed these new kids cool, they disappeared, having learned that being friends with me was social suicide.  I found myself wandering around the playground by myself during recess looking for people to play with.


By this point, the school administration was quite familiar with me, as I frequented their office, constantly expressing the troubles I was having with my classmates, in hopes that something would be done about it.  All I got was a figurative pat on the head and a sympathy smile.  And so, I reached a breaking point that year, writing a letter to my teacher, saying I couldn’t handle it and I didn’t know what else to do.  Naturally, it sounded an alarm and the school’s guidance department ordered me to see a psychologist.

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A House Divided

At apartheid’s end, the dorms of the University
of the Free State in Bloemfontein were integrated.At first it went well, then the students chose to resegregate. A story of the continuing battle against racism in South Africa.

Billyboy Ramahlele heard the riot before he saw it. It was a February evening in 1996, autumn in South Africa, when cooling breezes from the Cape of Good Hope push north and turn the hot days of the country’s agricultural heartland into sweet nights, when the city of Bloemfontein’s moonlit trees and cornfields rustle sultrily beneath a vast sky glittering with stars. The 32-year-old dormitory manager at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein was relaxing in front of a wildlife program on the TV with his door open.

Suddenly, he became aware of a new noise. Could it be the trees, rustling in a gust? No, it was heavier, more like trampling. Could it be his TV? He switched it off. The noise grew louder.

Ramahlele got up and poked his head out the door. There he saw the students of the dorm he managed, which housed about 100 black males, some of the first blacks to attend the historically white university since it had integrated four years earlier. And he immediately saw the source of the noise: His boys were stampeding out of the dorm entryway and running toward central campus. Some of them were singing militant songs from an earlier era, when blacks fought against apartheid rule, including one that went Kill the Boer, a nickname for white Afrikaners. Many were holding sticks or cricket bats.

They said they wanted to confront the white boys on campus. The whites, they claimed, refused to treat them as they should be treated in South Africa’s new democracy, and they wanted to put an end to their insolence once and for all. More than one boy opened up his jacket to show Ramahlele a gun tucked inside.

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