What’s Archival Research?
Archival research is a type of researching that consists of going into a physical collections of materials to find documents from original records. Sounds boring right? Some assumptions of it include the following: it’s lengthy, it’s unproductive, and it’s so old-fashioned. Keeping these in mind, I became hesitant and unsure of what to expect in the Santa Clara University Archives.
However, I am proud to say that it was extremely interesting and an experience like any other. Interactive and hands-on, boxes relating to the Student Involvement Center and academic departments like Chicano Studies had me excitedly flipping through the pages. Eventually, I stumbled upon documents about the birth of the Multicultural Center (MCC). Going deep down in that rabbit hole gave me incredible insight and knowledge about what it was like to be a minority at SCU during the 1980s and 1990s. I also found this newsletter.
Fight The Power! (Is it really though?)
At a glance, it looks like a newsletter written by the MCC but actually it turned out to be written by a group named, “Fight The Power!”. Also known as FTP!, their motto is “All the news that’s not fit to print in The Santa Clara“. So far, sounds a little strange…
This was a response to the many articles written in The Santa Clara about the new MCC and what it means for the minority population of SCU. Reading sections like “Guide to MCC Organizations” and “MCC Week” opened my eyes to what some of the student body thought about minority students on campus.
In the “Guide to MCC Organizations”, FTP! described organizations like APSU as, “The most annoying MCC Asian club. Most of its members tend to be white-washed Asians who could not associate with their own kind and get humped into an ‘Asian’ group”. Stereotyping and insulting the various cultural organizations, the FTP! reveal the racist feelings that can arise when certain groups get more attention and resources than others. Yet, these resources are meant to encourage and empower minority groups, not discourage majority groups.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the FTP! staff continues on a rant about how the MCC was not inclusive of groups like Spanish and Irish clubs, stating they, “are not considered to be ‘multi-cultural’, but rather ‘WHITE’ and not fit for the MCC”. In the population of students at SCU, these groups are considered to be the majority while the MCC aims to be a community for underrepresented and oppressed groups. In addition, the group thought the MCC Week was the MCC’s way of saying, “We want to stay down and continue to be looked down upon as minorities…because we like it that way. We have no room for advancement and want people to feel sorry for us”. This outraged me that such a blatant insult was written and how incorrect it is since it contradicted the entire purpose of the MCC. This is exactly opposite of what the goal is for racially and culturally discriminated individuals and it was disappointing to see that some of SCU did not understand this. Although it contradicted by beliefs, I was grateful that I found this document in the archives and was able to understand what life was like in SCU’s past.
My Takeaway
Overall, I was able to understand the views of students at SCU in the 1980s and 1990s through my archival research. Flipping through pages and pages and sorting through all sorts of documents proved to be resourceful and useful in finding information on the topic of student involvement, and specifically diversity.
Thanks for reading!
P.S. If you want some more history on the MCC, check out this helpful link!