History club hosts voices of America lecture

From surfer to scholar, Ronald Takaki is not one to be taken lightly. The professor spoke on Nov. 13 night about his unique views on American history in the 21st century.

The Hawaiian native, once known as 10-toes Takaki, is an Ethnic Studies Professor Emeritus at Berkley University.

Through personal experiences that have helped shape his views on history, he has formed a rather interesting take on American diversity and its role in history in the 21st century.

Inspired by a high school teacher named Shunji Nishi, Ph.D, Takaki set out on his quest for higher education in his senior year of high school.
Takaki said that by coming from Hawaii, he has seen doctors of Asian-American heritage. However, Nishi was the first Asian-American he knew to have a doctorate.
Inspired by his teacher’s high degree, Takaki said he was determined to work hard and possibly achieve the same degree one day.
Takaki was challenged daily by Nishi. He was required to frequently submit papers in regards to specific lessons.
“Every time I submitted a paper it would come back with an epistemological question,” Takaki said. “That’s the kind of question that asks how do you know you know what you know.”
Takaki spent a lot of time on this question. How do we know what we know? He said this is an important question to consider when looking at history because it is the ‘how’ that determines the ‘what’.
Takaki said he took great care in trying to answer this question in every paper he submitted.  By the end of Takaki’s senior year, Nishi asked him to consider leaving the Hawaiian islands to seek higher education out of state.
Takaki, who had never left Hawaii, declined. Takaki said he had already been accepted to the University of Hawaii, and that was where he intended to further his education. However, Takaki granted his teacher permission to speak in his regards with the College of Wooster in Ohio.

One day, Takaki said he received an acceptance letter to the College of Wooster in the mail. The letter requested me to fill out the enrollment application and to begin schooling there in the fall semester, Takaki said.

In the fall of 1957 Takaki boarded a plane and flew to Ohio as a freshman of the College of Wooster.
My first trip to the actual States was a strange one, Takaki said. Even though I’m an American, none of my fellow students saw me as one.

Takaki said fellow students noticed his Hawaiian accent and asked questions in regards to where he came from.
“People would ask me if I spoke English or how long I had been in the country,” Takaki said. “I cannot blame them for not seeing me as a true American. Now I know that it is simply because they did not learn about it in American history.”
Inspired by his experiences at the College of Wooster and by the moral vision of Martin Luther King Jr., Takaki began the Ph.D program at Berkley University. He chose the topic of racial prejudice and slavery in America as his dissertation topic.
Eventually, through his research and historical knowledge of American diversity Takaki was able to land a job as professor of UCLA’s first-ever black history course.
“I remember being very nervous and excited that first day of class,” Takaki said. “It was a room with 500 seats, and every seat was taken. Students were even in the aisles. I could tell they were wondering what an Asian-American knew about black history.”

Takaki said this first observation of the classroom was intimidating.
Despite his first-day jitters, Takaki was successful in his course. He and his students eventually organized UCLA’s first Black Student Union.

It was in teaching the black history course that Takaki slowly began to change his views on American history. Instead of teaching it in the traditional manner Takaki began to view it through an angle of racial diversity in America.

After being fired from UCLA in 1972, for undisclosed reasons, Takaki began teaching at Berkley. It was there that he joined the ethnic studies program.
Takaki began focusing his teaching on looking at diversity comparatively with five groups black, Asian, Native American, Latino and European.

He began asking his students how it is possible to bring so many stories of ethnic and racial minorities together.
Takaki reminded everyone at his lecture about the outstanding role diversity plays in America.
He said that within their lifetime every American will be a minority at some point.
He ended his lecture with a reminder to everyone.

“The time has come for everyone to rethink American history and to rethink who is an American,” Takaki said. “It is time to welcome America into the 21st century.”

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