Purported Discussion On Asian Gangs Provokes Cultural Debate

Uncertainty marked the first Asian American Association (AAA) Discussion Group meeting last night in Loker Commons.

The talk, billed as a panel discussion on Asian gangs, quickly digressed into a roundtable on Asian-American attitudes toward urban hip-hop culture, leaving some of the event's 21 participants bewildered and others upset.

Group moderator Michael K. Tan '01 accepted responsibility for the confusion and admitted that in its advertisements the AAA may have conflated gangs with hip hop culture, but did so unintentionally.

"The purpose of the meeting was to look at Asian hip-hop culture and discuss the perception that Asian youth have appropriated what has been stereotyped as African hip-hop culture," Tan said.

"We weren't going into this to discuss the material realities of gang culture, although there is a lot of overlap between it and hip-hop," he added.

This explanation, however, did not allay the concerns of some of those present at the event, at least one of whom expressed her dismay that such an error could be made.

"I don't understand the purpose of this discussion," said one participant, who asked to remain anonymous. "In fact, I'm kind of offended that hip-hop culture was associated with gang culture."

This initial ambiguity about the focus of the panel notwithstanding, the group accommodated those who wished to broach both subjects, relying on a free-ranging question-and-answer style that invited contributions from all participants.

Referring to personal experience, another participant who requested that his name not be used described his own run-ins with street gangs in New York City, explaining that while he "never saw the ugly stuff," he knew of gang members luring his peers into their networks through "a lot of money, free drugs and gifts, like beepers."

At the opposite end of the spectrum, Kelly Yamanouchi '00, who is a Crimson editor, professed that she did not know of any Harvard students who had contact with gang culture and proposed that "a lot of Asian people" imitate inner city fashions because they "want to pretend they are poor."

Yamanouchi's comments sparked controversy among participants, some of whom said hip-hop style represented a political statement of non-conformity with mass culture. Others said the style connoted solidarity among people who shared the same back-ground.

"Hip-hop culture does arise out of a tradition of resistance," Tan said.

Nevertheless, there was broad agreement among participants that the proliferation of inner city styles, whether hip-hop or gang, among Asian-Americans was related to the commodification of both cultural traditions by corporate America. As one of the participants who asked not to be named said, "it's all about the corporation."

At the conclusion of the evening's proceedings, Tan noted his satisfaction that the AAA Discussion Group had achieved its primary purpose: "To provide a space for discussion of Asian-American issues."

He said the AAA would hold such roundtables on a weekly basis and attempt to avoid future mistakes in advertising.