Week 10 - Jamie McCaa

Jamie McCaa

ASA 002 Section A03
Week 10

This week’s reading, “The Time to Fight is Now': When Asian American Women in Academia Go Rogue” by Kieu Linh Valverde and Wei Ming Dariotis gives insight to the plight of Asian American women in academia – and gives an outline of the rest of their novel which showcases the personal stories of women who have encountered the discriminatory practices of the university firsthand. As we have already read Professor Valverde’s own account of how the university pushed her to her absolute physical limits, the stories described in the paper were not shocking, but rather just disappointing to read – it’s upsetting that so many women must face so much strain in order to get even a piece of what they deserve for their academic work. However, the paper also notes that just “getting tenure” and having more women in positions of power in academia is not enough – and that the whole system must be reformed from something that silences those who stand up to something that encourages academic freedom.

One part in particular that really struck me was the paper’s discussion on anger. Anger being seen as an unprofessional and immature way of reacting to injustice is something I personally have a lot of experience with, even being told that “nothing productive comes of being angry” in the past. The paper reminds us that anger is a productive energy, not a destructive energy, and reading this gave form to the feelings I had towards being told that anger is unproductive my whole life. I think this mindset is incredibly harmful to those most marginalized by the academy, as it invalidates their rightful anger at the wrongdoings and injustice of the universities.

Question: How can undergraduates aid in changing the university’s overall structure, even if in small ways?

References:

Valverde, K.L & Dariotis, W.M. (2017) The Time to Fight is Now': When Asian American Women in Academia Go Rogue. In Fight the Tower: Asian American Women Against Injustice in the Academy (pp. 1-46).

(n.d.) [digital image]. Retrieved from http://www.azquotes.com/quote/1184456