The Matsunaga Affair Chronology

It is a time of political organizing among students at The New School. Weekly meetings are held by Students and Youth against Racism (SAYAR).  Changes in the Weather is created as an “umbrella group” for discussions to address the “lack of connections made between our classes, our lives, and the world outside,” especially on questions of gender, sexuality and race, at Eugene Lang College.

An exhibition of works by Japanese graphic designer Shin Matsunaga opens at the Parsons Galleries. Parsons’ Chancellor David Levy commends the  “inventive and far-reaching” work; “blending a Japanese calligraphic sensibility with modern typography and western approaches to graphic design” it “provides a deep and educational experience into the working of the graphic process.” Matsunaga’s first show in the U.S., it comprises 350 works spread over three gallery spaces. The space visible from Fifth Avenue includes small posters that Matsunaga’s company used for in-house celebrations of successful and beloved projects.

One of the small posters in the small gallery is a 1987 newspaper advertisement for Calpis, which includes its racist logo. Associate Dean of Milano School of Management John M. Jeffries sees it and writes a letter to Fanton and Levy. He describes the image and the “pain” of encountering it – “especially at The New School and just weeks after the president’s commitment to creating a more inclusive university environment.” Jeffries appends copies of recent articles from American magazines about racist imagery in Japanese popular culture.

Chairman of the Parsons Exhibition Committee Keith Long responds to Jeffries. Procedures were followed and there was “no intention to offend.” The exhibition was curated “in its entirety” by Matsunaga and his team in Tokyo. Especially in light of the Statement on Freedom of Artistic Expression, it “would be presumptuous of the committee to edit or censor this work.” The exhibition remains unchanged.

The exhibition closes in a flurry of protest. A statement from “New School Students and Staff” deplores the image and the administration’s refusal to take the offending image down or accompany it with a disclaimer: “this kind of racism is a disgrace.” 50-75 people march to the President’s Office. Under pressure Fanton promises to pen a school-wide statement on the topic.

Lang faculty member Ann Snitow writes a letter to Fanton, describing the increasingly robust political culture of Lang and explaining her participation in the siege of his office. While she “associate[s] censorship campaigns with group impotence,” she supports the students in their protest. “There are finally enough black students at Lang for them to be able to join together and state their feelings about how few they still are – an irony of progress.” Snitow joins other Lang faculty members in a meeting with Fanton.

The controversy gains the attention of the Village Voice and, a week later, the New York Times. Sundiata defends his action to the media: “The New School doesn’t have the right to invite someone into my community to insult me. Matsunaga can say or draw whatever he wants, but you don’t have to invite him in.” 

Claiming to write for the “overwhelming majority” of his fellow students, an undergraduate at Parsons upset at Sundiata’s “vandalism” and the university’s reaction to it writes to Fanton. The student demands that Sundiata be fired and that those who signed their names in support be suspended or expelled.

Students stage a “disruption” at Lang Student Orientation, placing the Calpis image and controversy in a global history of intolerance and violence. They call for their classmates to walk out of classes on Valentines Day, to make it a “working day on homophobia, sexism and racism.” The February 14^th “Day of Love and Outrage” begins with a staging of intolerant claims within the classroom.