AAA History

The goals of AAA were defined early on, though Ho stated that debate and differences raged about the direction of the new organization.

Some students supported AAA as an apolitical social group while others, Ho included, wanted the organization to take on an activist role with educational goals as well.

"The activist legacy of AAA is critically important; it has to get things done," Ho said, adding that the cultural and social aspects of Asian American life could not be considered without taking into account the political struggles of Asian Americans.

Assuming a heavily political stance, the early core members sponsored events such as Asian American parties and cultural programs in addition to fighting for recruitment and greater admission of Asian Americans, supporting divestment from South Africa and forming a community-service program in Boston's Chinatown.

"AAA really expanded after I left, due to the involvement of activist Asian women," Ho said, citing as a main concern the organization's disproportionate male-female ratio. Symptomatic of many oppressed groups, Ho said, Asian American women often had to deal with men's insecurities, even in a university environment.

In 1979, AAA president Steve Pon wrote "An Asian American Perspective," a radical essay outlining past discrimination against Asian Americans. "Who hasn't been asked if your father works in a restaurant or laundry, or how long have you been in this country, or even, 'You speakee English?' Who hasn't been called a 'Chink' or a 'Jap,' or sneaky or inscrutable? Who hasn't been asked to say something in Chinese, and when you explain you're Japanese, they reply, 'Well, it's all the same, isn't it?' Or perhaps strangers come up to you and ask if you're Chinese or Japanese and when you tell them, they are proud that they could tell the difference, or they tell you they had Chinese food last night."

Pon viewed AAA as an educational organization dedicated to mutual support among members and to informing others about Asian American issues. "The reasons for having an AAA are as many and diverse as the people in it. ... It is ours to mold, build and use as we wish. Come, help shape it with your own hands," Pon wrote.

Involved in AAA from 1976 to 1980, Renee E. Tajima '80 was a core member of AAA and helped lobby for minority recognition for Asian Americans at Harvard.

"I remember sitting in Epps's office demanding an admissions and recruitment program for Asians," she said. Tajima went on to become the founder and first staff member for the Asian American admissions and recruitment program, taking trips around the country to encourage Asian Americans from low-income families to apply.

The political activities of AAA pivoted on involvement with two movements. The first, the East Coast Asian Student Union (ECASU), which Tajima helped found, served as an intercollegiate support network and pushed for affirmative action, an issue which the historic Bakke case in the Supreme Court brought to the nation's attention. Through participation in marches in Washington, D.C. and campus education, AAA members sought support.

In 1977, AAA was a key part of an anti-apartheid coalition of more than 1,000 students who took over Holyoke Center. "We closed it down," Tajima said. "We took over the offices and educated people about apartheid."

The apparent rift between the "political" core members and those who sought a more social role for the organization persisted, according to Tajima. "The challenge was to find common ground," she said.

At that time, Radcliffe women put together a slide show on the Asian American experience of women, a production which was a very emotional project for all involved because it helped unify students both within and outside of AAA. The slide show opened the eyes of the less political members and heightened the importance of teamwork and compromise for the core members, Tajima said.

Tajima, now an independent documentary filmmaker based in California, said AAA and other campus organizations helped prepare Asian Americans for leadership positions. "[AAA] really changed leadership of Asian Americans. If you look at the people running for elected office or who are involved in Asian American legal aid, a lot of them started on a campus organization," she said. "Even those who were not political people have become politicized in the process and are still involvedÉwhich would not have happened without AAA."

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