API Social Movements and Interest Groups

Kevin Wang

ASA 2 Section 2

Week 1

API Social Movements and Interest Groups

Reading through the article “Asian Pacific Americans’ Social Movements and Interest Groups” and the sections describing a few specific instances of Asian American political activism, I was reminded of what effective social movements look like. The article was fairly educational in the history of Asian American movements for social justice and equality.

The conclusion, however, left me slightly annoyed. One reason is that it felt so out of place to me, despite it being labeled ‘Conclusion’. It talked about how recent technology can help with the old struggle of equality for a new generation; an interesting idea, but not mentioned anywhere else in this short history lesson of API activism. The second reason, which may be dismissed because the article was written nearly 15 years ago, is that while technology can greatly aid in the organization of movements, the spread of information is sometimes too fast. Misquoted statistics and misrepresented information on all sides, whether intentional or not, are dangerous and can cause a lot of harm. However, I wonder, as the generation that grew up in this technology, will we be able to fight for social justice and equality while maintaining integrity with the distribution of information, no matter how much others abuse it?