Regenia Un_A01_Week8

In the article “What Asian Americans Are Bringing to Campus Movements for Racial Justice” by Mark Tseng Putterman, he writes and quotes the opinions of different Asian Americans students on the problem that Asian-American students are singled out from the movements and activism and their voices were excluded on various American campuses. In addition, Gonzales at the University of Minnesota claimed that “One of the biggest things we recognized here on campus is we have four Ethnic studies programs and Asian American studies is the only one that doesn’t have its own major department.” Studying in California, I was shocked by this fact because I have never thought that Asian Americans in other places are facing such challenges.

This article not only talks about the gap between Asian American students and other students, but also the disconnection between Asian Americans and Asian International students. Towards the end, Theanne Liu, the co-president of the Asian Pacific American Coalition (APAC) talks about an incident on YikYak which is related to the “disconnection and tensions” between Asian American and Asian international students. I have strong feelings about this because I am an Asian International student and before coming to the States, I supposed that we could have a closer connection with Asian American students because we experienced similar culture. However, some Asian American students did complain to me about the number of Asian International students and they feel isolated with those students. This makes me sad because this worsened the internalized racism.

At the end, BAATF and BAASA leader Theresa Yeo said that “The more that people feel like they belong in a space, the more they feel like they should change what’s going on if they feel like it’s wrong.” Therefore, my question is what are the ways that can improve students ‘sense of belonging?

Putterman, M. T. (2015, February 1). “What Asian Americans Are Bringing to Campus Movements for Racial Justice.” Race Files.

[uploadedTAAM]. (2016, July 6). The Asian American Movement (Feature Documentary) [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fOwijRIVqM