Patrick Abdon Week 6 SS1

The last three readings of this week can really be summarized as a rallying call. It goes over the subjugations and discriminations that Asian American women have to go through, then it asserts that because of these issues we must issue a fight. “We” being anyone who is in academia such as those that are pursuing higher education (students), or supporting it (faculty). The environment in academia should not be negatively biased towards any one group, especially women, when the goal is mutual amongst everyone. Unfortunately that’s not how things are right now but the last two chapters show a glimpse of optimism. Through academic symbiosis, through community building, legislative action, calling out the wrongs and favoring the rights, there is a sense that the normal patriarchal, hierarchical system can be dismantled (446). Rodriguez makes it known that acknowledging the issue is one thing but fighting it is another. To fight it one has to “be woke” and by being woke, as Dariotis and Valverde states, is a way of counteracting the institutionalized mind (432). The state of wokeness is a state that not only questions the system but threatens it. And this is what activism is built upon, a common goal to destabilize the underlying, hidden factors affecting how we grow in this country. For as long as this country has been established there has been an agenda to hold certain groups of people down. It is upon the common people to take a stand. We most definitely have the power to change, the question is are we willing to give up what is already known (and maybe comfortable for us) for the better good?

Question: I am really curious as to how the movement for Asian American women in academia is similar/dissimilar to Asian American women in other fields. When I first came into this class I knew nothing of their struggles but now I question if others are feeling the same pressures as well? 

Sources Cited:

Dariotis, W., Valverde, L. (n.d.). Conclusion Academics Awaken: Power, Resistance, and Being Woke.  Fight the Tower, 423-441.

Kaufman, C. (2019, January 19). Belonging and Social Change: A Critique of the Politics of Wokeness. Retrieved from https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/01/19/belonging-and-social-change-critique-politics-wokeness

P.W., (n.d.) My Kintuski March 3, 2014, His Holiness Held My Hand to His Heart. Fight the Tower, 419-422.

Rodriguez, R. (n.d.). Epilogue Upward and Onward: Asian American Women’s Legal Resistance. Fight the Tower, 443-449.