In Memory of Professor Ronald Takaki
I’ve been busy these days toiling away with my scholarly pursuits and haven’t had much time to write for this beloved blog. The recent news of Professor Ronald Takaki’s passing made me pause for a moment and turn away from my tasks for the day.
Over the next few days, you will hear much about the many contributions that Ronald Takaki has made to the field of American History, to the fields of Multicultural and Ethnic Studies, to our collective knowledge about ourselves as a people. He has revisioned much of American History with his seminal texts, “A Different Mirror” and “Strangers from a Different Shore.” He has deconstructed stereotypes and been a champion for affirmative action. So I won’t talk about it much here. There is much you can learn about Dr. Takaki from his books, but there is even more you can learn by listening to a lecture or by having a conversation with him.
I never took a class from Ronald Takaki. In fact, I’ve never taken a class in American Ethnic Studies or Asian American Studies, but I knew about Ronald Takaki. I was fortunate to attend a couple of his lectures that he delivered. The first time I saw Professor Takaki was when he ventured to my alma mater, the University of Washington, to talk about Hiroshima and Pearl Harbor. He spoke about why Truman decided to bomb Hiroshima. The next time I attended one of his lectures, it was at Northeastern University. This time, he focused on identity politics, and how Asian Americans see themselves. In both talks, though, the real subject matter, in my opinion, was epistemology and pedagogy: How do we know what we know? How have we learned what we have learned? The history, the identity politics, they only served as backdrops to those questions.
I was fortunate enough to talk to him for a bit after his lecture. I don’t actually remember the details of the conversation. I told him what I was doing, mentioned that I was a fan of his work, and said that I was truly inspired by what he had accomplished. Maybe I could have learned more about his vision for America, maybe I could have gotten his perspective on history, maybe I could have asked him about the basics of surfing. But in that moment, I was just starry eyed. Yeah, it was a man crush made in heaven.
Sometimes I wonder what America would be like if Takaki had decided not to go to Wooster College… he almost didn’t go. Well, he probably would have become one of the best Asian American surfers evar! But thankfully for America, he did go to college. Thank you Professor Takaki for opening our minds, for teaching us how to think critically, and for helping us validate our experiences as American. Thank you.
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Tags: In memory of.
3 comments
After everything that is said about Ronald Takaki and his contributions, the one thing that I will always remember about him is his energy and exuberance. He truly is a role model and a hero.
i met him in 2001 at a hotel bar in north carolina and asked him to sign a cocktail napkin…
when you boil it down eugene to this:
How do we know what we know? How have we learned what we have learned?
i think that is fitting, and that’s why his work reverberates beyond the scholarship in his books or the courses he taught or the speeches he may have given.
Do you still have the napkin?