Week 9 | Sabrina Chou | A03

Sabrina Chou
ASA 2 
Sec A03

Week 9: Solidarity Movements

“Building a Culture of Solidarity: Racial Discourse, Black Lives Matter, and Indigenous Social Justice” by Santos F. Ramos expresses sentiments of a need for solidarity within people of color, and a better understanding of racial relations in order to further the civil rights movement of marginalized minority groups. He discusses the powerful and highly publicized “Black Lives Matter” movement, and the subsequent appropriation of the title by other people of color. He states, however, that these instances are not necessarily intentional, but rather done in goodwill to bring attention to the struggles that other minorities face as well. Yet, in order to achieve just that without lessening the impact of BLM and what it represents, Ramos continues, other groups within people of color should be able to “simultaneously acknowledge our similarities and differences”, stand with the movement in solidarity, and realize that race is a social construction, not culture itself.

Asian Americans are put on a pedestal as the “model minority”, and are often thought of by other people of color as less oppressed or more similar to our oppressors. Because of this model minority myth, Asian Americans are excluded from the conversation of race or ethnicity in politics and ethnic studies in universities. However, this type of biased belief and stigmatization is what isolates certain groups within minorities and weakens their movement for equality. It is important to recognize and correct this misconception and grasp the ways in which we are related to one another, so that minority groups can push toward a single goal of disassembling institutional racism.

Question: How do we promote a sense of solidarity within all minority groups?

References:

Plaid, A. (2016, May 03). When Asian American politics and Black Lives Matter met at Macalester. Retrieved May 28, 2017, from https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/when-asian-american-politics-and-black-lives-matter-met-at-macalester/

Ramos, S. F. (2016, April 20). Building a Culture of Solidarity: Racial Discourse, Black Lives Matter, and Indigenous Social Justice. Retrieved from http://enculturation.net/building-a-culture-of-solidarity