Prof offers solution to racial strife

One solution to the racial crisis in America is changing the curriculum, according to Ronald Takaki, a professor from the University of California at Berkeley. "How can you change the world if you can't even comprehend it?" Takaki asked, referring to the absence of a multi-cultural requirement at the University. "For us not to be in the University curriculum is an omission," he said during a speech last week. "It tells me that people who look like me are not Americans." The lecture was the closing event of the first Steinberg Lectures, which bring several experts to campus to discuss a topic. This year the series focused on the Asian-American experience. It addressed the importance of individuality and, as panelist and author David Hwang said, "a more authentic portrayal" of the Asian culture and people to America. It is in fact the portrayal of Asian-Americans as the "model minority" that Hwang said he regrets, saying it robs the individual of identity. Hwang sought to redefine America as a place with "all cultures interacting and influencing each other." Panelist Bharati Mukherjee, author of several books including The Holder of the World and Wife, also addressed the problem of identity, saying she desired a nation "that is a collection of individuals" rather than groups which are identified by race and religion. A question and answer session immediately after the lecture focused on education and the curriculum. Helen Gym, a graduate of the College who now teaches in the Philadelphia public school system, said "[the issue] wasn't addressed when I was an undergraduate and still isn't. "It is shameful and criminal that an elite academic institution fails to graduate a body of students that has a strong sense of social and political responsibility," Gym said.