“One of the issues I had was when it was sort of one community was defining difference with respect to whiteness. It’s almost like everything’s defined against whiteness. The comparative work within, the hard comparative work, that Audre Lorde talks about, and Black feminists talk about, and women of color feminists also talk about is: how do we actually understand difference? Instead of thinking we’re actually the same and we share common causes.”

“We wanted to create a center that was different than every other community center – one that was connected to an intellectual project as well, not just student services: a funding stream: a research and scholarship funding stream that funds students and grad student researchers.”

Dr. Wayne Yang is a Professor of Ethnic Studies and the Provost of Muir College at UC San Diego. His work “transgresses the line between scholarship and community, as evidenced by his involvement in urban education and community organizing. Dr. Yang writes about decolonization and everyday epic organizing, particularly from underneath ghetto colonialism, often with his frequent collaborator, Eve Tuck” (UCSD Ethnic Studies). In this interview, Yang discusses the activism of students of color during the 2010s, the experiences of faculty involved in and/or connected to student efforts and demands, and the politics of power and relationships within the university (in the institutional sense).

The interview was conducted on November 8, 2021 via Zoom by Amy Wang, a doctoral student of Education Studies.