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A student emailed me today to say that a GTA in another course asked them: "what do you get out of Pacific Studies?" implying it's a waste of time & honestly, aside from the fact I am fuming, let me just quickly talk ab how this question is a) racist b) harmful c) irrelevant
a) it's racist because the assumption built in here is that Pacific knowledge systems and perspectives have no value in a Western education system. The devaluing of our knowledges is founded on colonial constructs of perceived value, colonial institutions and knowledge prisons.
b) it's harmful because Pacific students are already an othered and marginalised ethnic group in our classrooms. Asking them to justify why they should want to centre their knowledge systems is asking them to question their right to exist, in front of other students.
c) it's an irrelevant q'n b/c it misunderstands a key tenet of Pacific studies. Our intellectual enterprises and research emphasizes accumulating knowledge for the benefit of our communities not for individual utility. If you weren't being intellectually lazy, you would know this
I could go on forever, but ya'll have to understand, these are not harmless "questions". It places extra burdens on our students to justify who they are and their place in the academy. This is exhausting for them and saps their intellectual energy. Please stop doing this.
OK, now that's off my chest, back to work!
