Week 8 - Savannah Keyse

Savannah Keyse
Section 2
Week 8

What Asian Americans Are Bringing to 

Campus Movements for Racial Justice 

This week's theme, Student Activism, is addressed in the reading by Mark Tseng Putterman where he exposes the role that Asian American students play in campus movements toward racial justice. Putterman explains that Asian American students while they my be majority on campuses are not actually represented in campus affairs or within the school's specific Asian American curriculum. The author also shows the relationship between Asian American students and the protests lead by Black student groups saying that while there are many forms that Asian American students take to support the Black student cause, they are not outwardly recognized as allies and Asian American students themselves are in need of a protest to express their position on college campuses and bring awareness that they are on campus too and are systematically having their rights taken away. As the article continues we are reaffirmed that Asian American students will soon begin to plan and hold protests demanding equal rights on campus and establishing their position as people of color on campus alongside Black, White, and Brown students. One quote explains that one year at Yale there were 2000 undergraduate courses available and yet only two of them were under the field of Asian American studies. This statistic is wildly unfair to the students wishing to learn more about Asian American specific fields and completely discredits the major as a whole when students are not allowed to receive education on people of their own decent. Asian American student activism will be at the forefront of student protests in upcoming years because these students are in need of expressing their demands on how they can feel more at home in college and not just do their four years and leave without any connection to their campus.

Question: Do you think that when Asian American students being to protest for their rights and needs on college campuses that other student groups like the Black Student Union will protest along side them in support?

• Article and Image: Tseng Putterman, M. (2016, February 1). What Asian Americans Are Bringing to Campus Movements for Racial Justice. Race Files.