Incidents in CA
Fall Semester 2005
In Fall 2005, I took a class (Anth 142? Culture in Mind) from the dean. It required a service learning session. Most students in that class found the volunteer work through Project SHINE, and I was one of them. I had problem with my informants (since they are Chinese elders, I couldn’t get along with them as a Japanese), and I e-mailed her to arrange a different site to fulfill the requirement. Sarah replied me to write back what happened at the site, so I made cut & past of two incidents from my field notes. One of them was about a Chinese volunteer, and on her reply, she wrote that they replaced the man since he was problematic. Anyway, she gave me alternatives, so I worked at a different site. Just before the final exam week, the instructor sent me an e-mail about the problem with the site. In the e-mail, she asked me if I want to talk with the people at the site or I want her to handle the problem. I replied her to handle the problem. Personally, I did not want to involve with the Chinese people for awhile. If there was misunderstanding, it would be the lack of explanation from my side. Since my final exams were coming, I did not have time for anything but finish my papers and study for the finals and I left the issue to the hand of the instructor (the dean).
There are couple of reasons I did not wanted to involve in the problem:
My experience during the anti-Japanese propaganda going on during Spring time.
Since I did not have informed consent from my informants, I did not wanted to debunk
their problems. I am not a spy, and I did not want to take any responsibility about what they are doing in the site.
As I wrote down the problem with a particular volunteer and their replacement of that man, I did not take any responsibility about their decision. I felt guilty about sending the information, since we suppose to protect our informants as anthropologists. It was an ethics matter.
In my final research paper for that class, I wrote down that my presence as a Japanese might give different influence to the people in the site. In other words, my correcting data might be biased and not applicable for everyone’s experience.
Moreover, I was taking a winter class, I had no time to ask them about the result. First of all, none of the instructor nor Sarah tried to contact me. So, I thought it was over, and I never thought I would became a kind of scapegoat of the problem.
Spring Semester 2006
March:
07/03/06 Sarah was talking with other classmates in the back of the classroom. First, I was not aware of what she was talking. But hearing my name in what she was saying, I noticed their conversation. I do not know where she got the information, but she was talking about my grade and 6-year education at DeAnza. She was talking about my personal problems like changing my major. It was really a humiliation.
09/03/06 The dean came to the class to observe the session. Since it is the first time we have Anth187 class at SJSU, she observed session. It seemed Sarah and other classmates did not talk anything about me before the class.
14/03/06 After Anth187 class (probably about 4:20pm), Sarah followed my car from the 4tth St garage (on the corner of 4th and San Fernando) for awhile. I drove my car to San Fernando St Westbound and made left turn near the station (the street headed to the I-87 South), and I made right turn on the San Carlos St where she drove straight to enter I-87. It was a red color jeep with no number plate on the front.
16/03/06 Sarah and other people were still talking about me on the back of the classroom. I have heard her saying, “(my name) is there,” and later in the conversation, she said something like “I wanna see her crying.” I do not know what the whole conversation was about but it really made me nervous.
18/03/06 I talked with my friend on the phone to complain about my problem with Sarah and classmates in Anth 187. My friend said that it is a type of harassment and violation of privacy. She also said that my personal record is in the admission and it is not accessible for everyone. She said that the dean might be involved because the dean can check the student records, and she stated that the dean should not talk about personal issues of a student to another student. Actually, she suggested me to talk to student advisor first.
23/03/06 I had midterm for Dr. Wxxxx's class. In after noon, I visited IPS (International Program Service) office to discuss the problem with a student advisor. I explained the harassment going on by Sarah and other students in Anth187 class. As Dr. Wxxxx had her office hour on Wednesday afternoon, I visited her if I could change my specialization to hers, physical anthropology. As I have taken enough for lower devision, I thought it would be an easy issue. Also, I asked about changing school. This time, I did not explain about what cultural anthropology major students were doing. She was very suggestive. When we were talking, she seemed surprised and moved her chair to the corner. It seemed some one was watching from the glass window to the hallway. She continued her suggestion in the closed room though. It might be Dr. Gxxxxxxx as he has office hour in that period. If that was a student then she could finish our conversation as soon as possible. She even asked me if I want to see my result of my midterm after she check my test.
* In my American Literature class, I found two spies Michalel and another man talking about how they were judging me in the class. Because of the way they talk, I thought it was about cultural anthropology students harassing me. They one time said, “they are really speakable.”
April
22/04/06 Dr. Wxxxx held a special lecture about her past research on the Friday of the third week this month. It was at the “famous” under ground classroom of WSQ Hall. (Any anthropology major student must take at least few classes in that room for graduation.) The flayer for the special lecture was distributed in both Anth187 and in her class. The lecture was held by the help of Anthropology and Behavioral Science class, which Sarah was the leader. Because Dr. Wxxxx told us that she would give us extra credit from writing a summary of her lecture, I attended it. Somehow, I found the chairwoman came to the lecture and observed Dr.Wxxxx doing very active flirtation on me. She had no bra and wore very loose clothes and was doing some suggestive gestures. The lecture was about her study about Canadian bones. I saw Sarah on the hall way to the lecture room.
* Later, I found Dr. Wxxxx and Dr. Gxxxxxxx got engaged from students' conversation.
May
02/05/06 Before the lecture of Dr. Wxxxx's class, she talked about her plan of making me as her lover with some students. I figured this out when I checked my voice recording. I was taping the students conversation to check who were working for the discrimination. I had some in my English Literature class and I wanted to make sure who were spying on me.
06/05/06 I wanted to know if what she was talking with students about lover issue was true or not, I made an appointment with Dr. Wxxxx about 2:00pm at her office. It was Saturday and
the Business Tower entrance was locked as usual for weekends. Dr. Wxxxx came to the entrance and opened the door for me. During this conversation, she told me that it is normal to have some special relationship with professors and she explained me her own experiences. (What I leaned and was able to get for my evidence was a huge scandal for physical anthropology field. She received AAPA awards few years ago and told me how she got close to Dr. D. Jxxxxxxxx in this conversation.) Moreover, she denied her relationship with Dr. Gxxxxxxx and said that he is a gay.