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Have you ever wondered why it is that people love watching zombies get their heads bashed in? According to Dr. Tomo Hattori, Assistant professor of Asian American Studies at Cal State Northridge, it is because people are inherently racist.

It is well known that zombies have been imbedded in popular culture recently; shows like The Walking Dead and the popularity of events like Zombie Runs are just some examples of this trend. But have you ever wondered where all this interest in zombies came from? Dr. Hattori says the fascination with zombies comes from our social anxiety of human survival and people’s inherit racism.

Hattori explained this at a lecture put together by the Critical Theory club last Wednesday night in Harbeson Hall.

Hattori spoke not only about zombies but also went into some depth on the Yellow Peril of the mid 19th century, providing a history of Chinese immigration to America and showing some political cartoons that reflected this country’s attitudes toward the Chinese at the time.

“Yellow Peril in simple terms is being afraid of Asian people. [Asians] get turned into something that’s a threat to the social health of white America,” said Hattori.

He also went on to say that Yellow Peril survives today in a different idea known as “model minority” which he described as “basically loving Asians.”

After explaining the Yellow Peril, he drew comparisons between it and the recent zombie fascination, discussing how they are both rooted and created out of fear.

“Systematic forces that produced the zombie culture can also be related to the systematic forces that produced the Yellow Peril,” said Hattori.

The reason Hattori made the connection with zombies was because he felt that they allow people to get out their inner aggression and to be inwardly racist without being overtly racist.

“The thesis about zombies is zombies return us to our happy genocidal racism but it’s a good form of catharsis because zombies aren’t any race,” said Hattori.

Armando Guevara, philosophy, was intrigued in the correlation between zombies and people’s inner racism, making his own connections between zombies and the American consumer society.

“I feel like we’re the zombies. We are a consumer society and a lot of times we do so without thinking about what we’re consuming and zombies do the same,” Guevara said.

Students in attendance were also able to ask Hattori questions, which ranged from the portrayal of zombies in film to the social aspects, which fuel the popularity of zombies in our culture.

Shane Underwood, English instructor and coordinator of the event, enjoyed listening to the student’s questions and felt that they were very insightful.

“I love listening to them ask questions to a man as intelligent as [Hattori] and him understand the questions,” said Underwood.

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