Samantha Soleta

Blog 1

ASA 02 03

September 30th, 2015

    We as Asian Americans have gone far too long living as simply the “model minorities” of America. As time goes on, Asian American communities begin to further assimilate into American culture. While that’s okay in the sense of evolving the Asian American community, it’s not okay that many see “absorbing the values of our oppressors” as a way of assimilation. In Bogg’s “Nothing is More Important Than Thinking Dialectically,” she speaks of the roots of Asian American studies and the direction needed for us to move forward as a community as well as alongside other communities of color. While older generations still strive for white beauty standards, younger generations begin to avoid their culture in fear of being a “fob.” By doing so they blindly absorb the values of our oppressors, we are not just ignoring the oppression but also perpetuating it. Boggs speaks of a “war of position” rather than a “war of movement” in which we as society construct power from below like the Zapatistas of Mexico. However to succeed in such a war, we must first realize the the potential change in our hands. 

Where do we start to make the Asian American community realize that to rise up, we must stop adopting the ideologies that cause our oppression in the first place?