Last week, I wrote an article criticizing UNC Asheville for showing a porn movie based on the “research” of Asian American Studies professor Darrell Hamamoto. UNCA Director of Public Information, Merianne Epstein [email protected], offered this defense of the taxpayer-supported porn movie screening:
…(W)e believe that universities exist to provide a safe forum for the expression and consideration of different points of view and the exploration of the robust marketplace ideas and beliefs; that the search for truth and knowledge is dependent upon a climate that fosters careful exploration of difficult topics; and that the only outcome of censorship is ignorance and prejudice. We defend with unhesitating vigor the right of our students to be free from censorship as they exercise critical thinking and pursue thoughtful dialogue in the exploration of the complicated issues of our time.
As beautiful as that was, I am about to offer a restatement of UNCA’s articulate defense. In order to fully comprehend my restatement, it will be necessary to take a longer look at Dr. Hamamoto’s research. I learned a lot about it from reading his marvelous essay entitled “The Joy F—- Club.” Some highlights of what I learned follow:
Dr. Hamamoto says that “(w)ithout prurient intent” he has his college students “contemplate and discuss the content of their sexual fantasy life” and to imagine what “types of faces and bodies” they conjure when trying to reach orgasm.
Discussing student sexual fantasies in class, teaches Dr. Hamamoto that Asian American students overwhelmingly fantasize about “Euroamericans.”He dubs this Asian American focus on “Euroamericans” as “a cross-generational fetishization of the White master race by Asian Americans.”
He explains that the in-class sexual fantasy exercise has, in effect, shown him his true purpose in life. “It is out of this classroom experience that I began thinking about ways to destabilize the hegemonic system of sex/race/power, wherein the denial of unalloyed sexual desire and carnal pleasure to Yellow people is coextensive with their social subordination.”
I also learned that “The historical legacy of U.S. imperial conquest, neocolonial occupation, dislocation, exclusion, relocation, and the depredation of global capitalism, have played a material role in shaping the multiform sexuality of Asian American men and women. Restrictive immigration legislation directed specifically against Asians has done much to distort and even prevent family formation.”
Similarly, Hamamoto informed me that “Out of the legal, legislative, and moralistic strategies brought to bear in the regulation of Asian American sexuality, a system of psychosocial dominance has evolved that, to varying degrees, has been internalized by the objects of social control. In addition, Asian Americans along with members of the dominant society have been immersed in racial supremacist ideology from cradle to grave.”
The Asian love master is at his finest when he proclaims that the “psychosocial domination of Asian Americans, although never complete and always contested, is compatible with the interests of ruling elites who hold political and economic dominion over communities of color, which are constrained to occupy the stratum of super-exploited laborers who create social wealth for capital. At the same time, the White working class maintains its marginal advantage over non-White competitors on the basis of superordinate racial identity within a segmented labor market. With the regulation of erotic desire and expression inextricably linked to a comprehensive system of political-economic and sociocultural control, Asian Americans have grappled with a psychosexual self-alienation that stems from a racialized sexuality shaped and sometimes deformed by hostile social forces.” I could not have said it better myself!
To reinforce his main thesis, the professor states that “Asian American male performers are almost nonexistent in straight video porn, again reflecting their sexuo-erotic subjection within the White supremacist complex.”
And, finally, the leader of the Yellow Porn movement tells us that “In revisiting and reclaiming Asian erotic arts traditions developed over centuries, by drawing from a demonstrated history of visual resistance, through the integration of the radical cultural politics of Asian American independent film movement, a Yellow porno practice can help recuperate a sexuality that has been distorted by the internalization of core racist values and beliefs that reach into the depths of individual psychology. Like other expressive forms, pornography is but one manifestation of the irrepressible urge to explore the oceanic possibilities inherent in the sexuality of our species-being. To engage more specifically in an Asian American porno practice is to take self-determined control of an unfixed, variable, malleable, but thoroughly racialized human sexuality, shaped and constrained over time by politically oppressive forces. I harbor no illusions that a self-conscious porno practice alone is sufficient to the task of destabilizing a near-hegemonic system of sex/race/power. But an Asian American cultural politics grounded in a radical jouissance that gives rise to the release of libidinal energy will remain an indispensable resource upon which to draw in the greater struggle against individual and group oppression.”
Upon closer examination of Hamamoto’s work, it appears that UNC-Ashville really has the following to say about free speech:
UNCA believes that universities exist to provide a safe forum for the expression and consideration of liberal points of view that help to legitimize the concept of moral relativism. UNCA also believes that the search for truth is irrelevant because the university abandoned long ago the idea of “truth.” UNCA seeks to nurture a climate that fosters careful exploration of even the most absurd and inane topics; as long as they are presented from a perspective that is stridently anti-American and treats the problems of all non-whites as stemming from white racism. If you ridicule us, we will falsely accuse you of censorship as we defend the indefensible. We will attack you personally with the accusation that you are both ignorant and prejudiced. We will defend the most revolting idiocy under the guise of protecting our students from censorship. At the same time, we will promulgate the myth that we are exposing our students to critical thinking and fostering the pursuit of thoughtful dialogue. These issues are not complicated. You will fund our mission, despite its lack of intellectual diversity, integrity, and honesty. Because we are more enlightened than you, this matter is not open to further discussion or debate.
Mike S. Adams will speak at N.C. State on August 30th. Details can be found on his website (http://www.DrAdams.org).
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Mike S. Adams was born in Columbus, Mississippi on October 30, 1964. While a student at Clear Lake High School in Houston, TX, his team won the state 5A soccer championship. Mike Adams graduated from C.L.H.S. in 1983 with a 1.8 GPA. Mike Adams was ranked 734 among a class of 740, largely as a result of flunking English all four years of high school. After obtaining an Associate's degree in psychology from San Jacinto College, Mike Adams moved on to Mississippi State University where he joined the Sigma Chi Fraternity. While living in the fraternity house, his GPA rose to 3.4, allowing him to finish his B.A., and then to pursue a Master's in Psychology. In 1990, Mike Adams turned down a chance to pursue a PhD in psychology from the University of Georgia, opting instead to remain at Mississippi State to study Sociology/Criminology. This decision was made entirely on the basis of his reluctance to quit his night job as member of a musical duo. Playing music in bars and at fraternity parties and weddings financed his education. Mike Adams also played for free beer.
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Upon getting his doctorate in 1993, Adams, then an atheist and a Democrat, was hired by UNC-Wilmington to teach in the criminal justice program. A few years later, Adams abandoned his atheism and also became a Republican. He also nearly abandoned teaching when he took a one-year leave of absence to study law at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1998. After returning to teach at UNC-Wilmington, Adams won the Faculty Member of the Year award (issued by the Office of the Dean of Students) for the second time in 2000.
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After his involvement in a well publicized free speech controversy in the wake of the 911 terror attacks, Adams became a vocal critic of the diversity movement in academia. After making appearances on shows like Hannity and Colmes, the O'Reilly Factor, and Scarborough Country, Adams was asked to write a column for Townhall.com.
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Today Mike Adams enjoys the privilege of expressing himself both as a teacher and a writer. Mike Adams is also an avid hunter and reader of classic literature. Mike Adams published his first book, Welcome to the Ivory Tower of Babel, in 2004. His second book, Feminists Say the Darndest Things: A Politically Incorrect Professor Confronts "Womyn" On Campus, was published in 2008.
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