Week 8- Angela Moy

Angela Moy
A01
Week 8

Mark Tseng Putterman’s, “What Asian Americans Are Bringing to Campus Movements for Racial Justice”, explores the “roles” of Asian American students on campus when faced by racial injustices. Putterman mentions racial movements such as Black Lives Matter on college campuses, and notes the lack of Asian American support. He speaks to several Asian American student activism leaders on their experiences of representation on their own campuses, combatting the idea that Asian Americans are apathetic to political movements.  

I feel as this article has a very “tricky” subject to touch upon. From what I have seen, there really is a “lack” of Asian Americans surrounding politics. I don’t see many who speak up about racial injustices. Perhaps this is attributed to the model minority stereotype, that we’re the “perfect” minority because we don’t speak up. However, I believe that in order for more Asian American students to start being represented in larger numbers, they must also support other movements, whether or not they surround Asian Americans. Whether this means standing up for black students in BLM movements or calling out other racial injustices, we cannot play in this game alone. If we expect other people of color to stand up for us when we need them to call out whitewashing or yellowface, we should also be calling out people for using the ’n-word’ or for racial profiling. You don’t have to be exclusively of a racial group to call out injustices in them. Like I said, this isn’t a game we play alone. Asian Americans supporting other racial movements also means other racial groups supporting Asian American movements. The age old idea of “You give what you get” really comes to my mind here. How can we gain support for our voice when we don’t lend our to those who need them too?

Question: What is stopping Asian Americans from looking past race? (Why are Asians so anti-black or still playing into colorism/racism?)

References:

[Digital image]. (n.d.). Retrieved May 19, 2017, from http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j286/ExpatJane/smileys/May%202008/yellowperil.gif

Putterman, M. T. (2016, December 27). What Asian Americans Are Bringing to Campus Movements for Racial Justice. Retrieved May 19, 2017, from https://www.racefiles.com/2016/02/01/what-asian-americans-are-bringing-to-campus-movements-for-racial-justice/