Week 1

Kimi Villaroman

AAS 2 A01

Week 1: Fight the Tower

Reading “Fight the Tower: A Call to Action for Women of Color in Academia" had a profound impact on me; at certain points, I could feel myself tearing up in sympathy for Prof. Valverde's difficult, demanding situation. After reading about her personal struggles, whether it be familial or professional, and knowing her background and situation, I feel a stronger connection to our professor which makes me want to succeed in her class even more.

I have always known that males receive more tenure positions in comparison to females and a large factor of that is the fact that females can utilize the Work Life program during pregnancy. What was striking to me is that women choose not to raise a family in fear of seeming less competitive to others who are fighting for a tenure position. In Valverde's words, women are "forced to choose between not having children for fear that having a family will jeopardize [their] careers or having children and subjecting [them]selves to prejudicial treatment" (Valverde, 29). My aunt, now a professor, has gone through a similar experience. She told the family that she would not be having children until her tenure spot had been guaranteed. At the time, I did not understand this logic, and why would I? I was completely disinterested in the politics of the university system. Now, after reading our professor's compelling article, I understand the process a lot more and I am shocked at the knowledge. It has always been my belief that all the professors in a system were respectful of each other; they all got here to a great university so the credentials MUST be there... So why would there be a need to foster a hostile work environment when the end goal is the same: to enlighten and progress the future of students? This is where Professor Valverde's speech about the corporatization of the university system comes into play. In a place like the university, a system that does not keep us in mind, we are not students, but machines that feed money into the corporation...And that thought unsettles me.

Minus the religious tone of the cartoon, Prof. Valverde represents Jesus in this comic where her credentials and works are off the charts, yet the academe is against her.

Question: What are tangible solutions to breaking this "heirarchy of Asians" (Chinese being at the top, Filipinos in the middle, and Cambodians at the bottom) mindset that so many seem to have? Do you believe that breaking down these barriers would solve many intra-racial aggressions?

Reference:
1. Valverde, K. (2013). Fight the Tower: A Call to Action for Women of Color in Academia. Seattle Journal for Social Justice, 12(2).
2. The Lighter Side of Academia. Retrieved March 27, 2017 from https://www.academickeys.com/all/cartoon.php?dothis=display&cartoon[IDX]=8.