week 1

Ju Yong Kim

Section: A02

Week 1: Fight the Tower

This article about Prof. Caroline Valverde, "Fight The Tower" contained a very inspirational message that resonated this idea of fighting back even when the odds were against you. When Prof. Valverde had to overcome the obstacles that was placed in front of her, she did so with confidence in her own abilities. She chose to ignore those who doubted and tried to deny her of her opportunities, and instead sought support from others. I find her experiences and the way she handled her challenges to be empowering. My parents, since young, have been telling me that the only way to succeed in life is to work harder than those around me. They implied that, no matter what activities that i participated in, my background and culture was always going to be inferior to the white people. Therefore, when Prof. Valverde attended those faculty meetings, even when urged not to, she fought back for not just herself, but for the entire asian community. When individuals are constantly oppressed and thought of as less than other races, they are affected in a detrimental way. This chain of repeated attacks can only be broken when fought back. Prof. Valverde showed determination and courage when attending those faculty meetings. Having to deal with the tenure ordeal probably was hard enough as it was, but to have the willpower to fight back is extraordinary. The message that really stood out for me from this article was that people of color should not suppress their feelings and thoughts. Instead, we, of the asian community, should fight for equality and equal treatment. 

references:

1.Valverde, K. (2013). "Fight The Tower: A Call To Action For Women Of Color In Academia" Seattle Journal For Social Justice 12(2): 367-418

2. Iyer, D. (2017) "We Too Sing America" Retrieved from http://deepaiyer.com/2014/01/

Question: when you said that even in the Asian community, there were class ranks such as; china as first, japan as second, and South Korea as third, etc.., what kind of guidelines were used to rank this?