Intentions and Effects of Father McShane and Francis Ford Coppola by Yujin Kim

    I attended the panel on Anti-Asian Racism on March 29th, in light of the shooting in Atlanta. As a Korean American myself, I didn’t know what to really expect coming into this panel; I figured I would know pretty much everything that they were talking about. And, for the most part, I was right. They talked about how tiring it is right now for AAPIs and how you can’t necessarily sleep it off or take a bath to feel better. It’s much more intrinsic to being Asian, and in turn a minority, in America. The panel also addressed worrying about friends or family, which I have also personally experienced, as my mom texts me everyday about how worried she is for me and herself. This results feeling powerless and dissociating to try and keep up with junior year. However, what I never considered are the transgressions/microaggressions that have happened to me. They are on my mind all the time now, but the most public, important, and blatant one went right over my head, until one of the panelists pointed it out.

    Father McShane’s address, titled “President’s Message on Anti-Asian Violence”, made me feel very weird when I first read it. The words were “right” and “correct” but something was off. It was because Father McShane was committing a microaggression in the statement denouncing anti-Asian racism. He stated that “we should enlarge, rather than shrink, our circle of compassion”. The panelist posed the question, who is “we”? He’s really only addressing white students and staff members. By trying to essentially be a “white savior” pleading that we include Asian Americans in our “circle of compassion”, he’s, in effect, excluding, dehumanizing, and objectifying AAPIs. I personally didn’t know that I needed to be included in this so-called circle. I drew a parallel with Father McShane’s statement and Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now.

    Coppola is trying to denounce imperialism and using the vehicle of the Vietnam War to do that. Obviously, the movie is not actively endorsing or supporting the American soldiers. Coppola uses the violence and hate they commit to make a statement against them. However, there are times the film walks on the thin line. The Vietnamese are a monolith our characters are “fighting”. I’m even hesitant to call it fighting because the characters spend a lot of time killing innocent villagers and farmers. The Ride of the Valkyries playing while helicopters fly over and kill senselessly feels more like idealizing the killing than denouncing it. Like McShane’s address, I felt strange watching this film; I know the context of the film, of the main idea that Coppola is getting at, but it wasn’t quite right. There is no sadness in the killing; there is more emotion shown toward the puppy in the boat than the people they brutally massacred. The Vietnamese are referred to in slurs, and they all live in villages and hidden temples. They are also quick to start worshipping this random white man, Kurtz. Constantly, the Vietnamese are put down in one way or another and this works against Coppola’s intended message. He tries to show that American racism and imperialism is harmful, but then actively participates in that racism through his portrayal of the Vietnamese.

    It is more important than ever to be mindful of what we say and do. Oftentimes, regardless of our intentions, we can be more harmful than helpful because race and identity is something we are still navigating. Both McShane and Coppola did not intend their writing or movie to be harmful to something they are trying to speak against. However, because they lacked the insight of AAPIs helping them write, their writing and film ended up being in a weird grey area of helpful on the surface, but harmful if you look a little deeper.

    The particular section of Father McShane's email is listed here: