Written Testimony to Local School Council at Senn High School

Written Testimony
Local School Council of Nicholas Senn High School
January 10, 2007
Submitted by Myron Dean Quon, Esq.

Honorable Local School Council Members:

Asian American Institute urges the Local School Council of Nicholas Senn High School to reconsider the naming of a school field after Mike North. The Asian American Institute is greatly concerned by November’s 5-4 vote, especially after last year’s incident during a radio broadcast in which North used the term “Chinaman” to describe a Cubs pitcher of Korean descent. He apparently has used this term (and many other racially derogatory terms) thoughtlessly for the past decade.

That term and others like it such as “chink” and “jap” are racial slurs that have been used to demean and humiliate Asian Americans. Terms like these have a long and bitter history. When immigrants first began arriving from China and Japan, the use of these terms became a convenient expression of contempt and hate. Bigots and racists used these terms to exploit the fictitious Yellow Peril – leading to burnings of and lynchings in Chinatowns. In fact, these were the terms used to justify passage of the Chinese Exclusion Acts during the 1880s and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Today, the use of these terms causes the same reaction among Asian Americans as the use of the N-word to refer to African Americans. His usage of “Chinaman” also illustrates another issue faced by Asian Americans – although we are a diverse community, we are often treated as a monolithic group. Using that derogatory term to refer to a Korean American athlete increases insensitive attitudes toward Asian Americans

Unlike North’s reckless usage of language (that can generate ignorant behavior and thinking), Senn High School has an important mission: “to develop a community of life-long learners who embrace diversity, have a social conscience, and possess the academic, critical thinking, social and technological skills to be responsible and productive members of society.” This naming of the school field after Mike North, however, sends the opposite message to the students of Senn. In addition to an admitted history of racially charged and insensitive comments during his radio broadcasts, North did not even graduate from Senn.

As the leaders for Senn High School, I ask that you ensure that the school field will be named after one of the many noteworthy graduates of Senn High School who deserve to be honored.