Week 9- Angela Moy

Angela Moy
A01
Week 9

Santo F. Ramos' "Building a Culture of Solidarity: Racial Discourse, Black Lives Matter, and Indigenous Social Justice" talks of his own Xicano experience of supporting Black Lives Matter movements and how other POC's narratives should not appropriate elements specific to black people in support of BLM. He touches on the effects of imperialism and colonialism on the lives and roles of POC in Western culture, and interracial relations.

As I mentioned in my blog post last week, I believe standing in solidarity with other POC is the biggest step in the direction of bringing recognition and awareness of the injustices against us for all groups involved. It is centuries of colonialism that has forced the concept of dividing cultures and turning us against each other that the notions of antiblackness or antibrownness or even antiyellowness(?) still exist among us. We fail to recognize that it is engrained in our societies with systems that aim to keep us apart. Professor Valverde mentioned that we should be fighting against these systems that time and time push us away from each other and create these biases and racisms. We need to support each other, seeing that our goal is the same. We all want to erase this line of black and white, or POC and non-POC. We all want the same rights, the same opportunities, the same privileges. Again, how do we expect other people of color to care about Asian interests when we do nothing to protect black interest or brown interests. We need to speak up for those who need our voices most, and they will return the favor. And for the Asians or other POC that do show their support for BLM movements or other POC movements: it is not about you. The example of the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter does not mean other lives do not matter. It refers to the fact that black lives are treated as lesser of an importance in society than other lives, and they want to bring attention to this. This is why I personally think the hashtag #AllLivesMatter or #BlueLivesMatter is complete BS. The movement does not devalue your lives, it is meant to empower and draw attention to the black lives and voices, as they have been historically trodden on, even in modern day.

Question: Why do Asians/Asian Americans choose to continue to uphold the "model minority" stereotype?

References:
[Digital image]. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://scontent.fsnc1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/s960x960/14712641_1145035578921253_5964444537727132019_o.jpg?oh=92ae26150f1690c05808757ee8f9d0e8&oe=59AB4B6B

Ramos, S. F. (n.d.). Building a Culture of Solidarity: Racial Discourse, Black Lives Matter, and Indigenous Social Justice. Retrieved May 28, 2017, from http://enculturation.net/building-a-culture-of-solidarity