Week Two: Charlene Chan, Section Two

April 9, 2017

Charlene Chan

Section 2

Week 2: Marginalization and Miseducation

This week’s reading, “Transformative Disjunctures in the Academy” by Linda Võ, analyzes the marginalization of Asian Americans in the academy. She sets the tone of her argument by giving background on the formation of the Asian American Studies in the context of the civil rights movement. In contrast to a time when racist ideologies were more openly prevalent, Võ notes that some students “take the ethnic and racial diversity around them for granted, denying that discrimination impacts them” (Võ 132). Oftentimes, we who did not have to fight for the rights that we have today take them for granted, and buy into the illusion that the fight is over. For this reason, I feel that Ethnic Studies are not only beneficial, but necessary. The exclusion of Asian-Americans from American history betrays the mantra of equality and inclusion that white America adopts. By omitting the history of an entire group of people in this country, Western education feeds into the marginalization of Asians and Asian-Americans, painting us as foreign and other. Võ describes the resistance that some students have to learning about race and ethnic relations, having been “taught simplistic notions such as ‘It happened in the past, so we should forget about it...’” (Võ 131). These “positivity politics”, as I like to call them, are unhelpful when striving for an egalitarian future.

The video I have linked below is from a talk segment on CNN in 2010 about the Arizona Ethnic Studies ban. Tom Horne, then Arizona superintendent of public instruction and sociologist Michael Eric Dyson debate the racist aspects of this decision. Horne claims that the existence of ethnic studies program will divide students by race and “infuse them with ethnic chauvinism”. Dyson argues that the history that is taught in American school systems are ethnic histories, but solely those of white ethnicities. He goes on, saying that the ethnic studies that Horne opposes would not be necessary if they were already included of the main narrative in American history.

I feel that this video is relevant to this week’s theme, as Horne’s opposition to the inclusion of ethnic studies mirrors the attempts of white America to disarm and depoliticize communities of color by miseducating them.

Question: How do we fight “colorblind” education and keep Ethnic Studies relevant, inclusive, innovative, and empowered?

References:

Arizona Ethnic Studies Ban. (2010, May 13). Retrieved April 09, 2017, from https://youtu.be/TgvOdD5bVsg

Stockdill, B. C., & Danico, M. Y. (2012). Transforming the Ivory Tower: Challenging Racism, Sexism, and Homophobia in the Academy (p120-144). Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press in association with UCLA Asian American Studies Center.