Minorities in America - Fight The Tower: A Call For Action For Women of Color In Academia

Joyce Wong
Section A01

Engineering Academy on New Bay Bridge. I'm on the far left (with the sunglasses) hugging someone/kneeling!

 In the first part of Professor Valverde's paper, one thing that stood out to me was that she "felt that [she] did not belong there, did not earn my place there...". As an academic that is in in both minority categories (Asian and woman), it is understandable that she felt this way. Even in the present, I see that there are many minorities that feel as if they do not belong in college campuses or any classroom environment in general. Being from the Bay Area, I am used to being in classrooms with people of all kinds of ethnicities. However, when I decided to apply to the Engineering Academy at my school and was accepted, I saw there was absolutely not as much diversity as I was used to. Majority of the class was white, then Asians, then a few black or Latino students. One of the female Latino students who was quite skilled dropped out of the engineering academy because she felt as though she did not belong. Even off college campuses, we continue to see this division in different fields of interest such as engineering.

One of the main points Professor Valverde made in her article was Audre Lorde's quote: "I was going to die, if not sooner then later, whether or not I had ever spoken myself. My silences had not protected me. Your silence will not protect you." This is a valid point that we have seen throughout history. If females such as Alice Paul had not spoken up for women's suffrage, we would not have been able to vote. This also applies to the Civil Rights Movement and even current events now (countries fighting against dictatorships). What continues to puzzle me is even though so many minorities have fought for suffrage, freedom, etc. through many kinds of movements, why is it that there is so much racism and sexism existent still? What is it that keeps it alive even though minorities have earned the right to these rights? Blacks still experience racism, Native Americans still experience oppression, and minorities are still seen as inferior.