Week 8

Camille Joy Abutin

Week 8

Section A01

During my first year at UC Davis, I had the privilege of being an intern for the Filipino Association for Health Careers, one of the 6 Fil-Am orgs on campus. My duties were small, I just had to shadow the different board members and act like a sponge, soaking up all the experiences I could. I didn’t really understand the complexity of the Fil-Am at the time, I didn’t even know that each Fil-Am org worked so closely together to contribute to a larger Fil-Am community. It wasn’t until the introduction of the “x” to the community that I began to understand the complexity of the Fil-Am. Long story short, the “x” is in reference to the use of “Filipinx” as opposed to “Filipino” to encourage gender inclusiveness within the community and it seemed like a good idea to promote “Fil-Am Unity” ; however, the introduction of the “x” took a toll on the community in ways past leaders didn’t expect. Instead of unifying the Fil-Am community, many could say that it did the opposite due to the opposing views on it and leftover bitterness towards how everything played out. In Leslie Do and Shannon Deloso’s “Precariously Positioned: Asian American Women Students Negotiating Power in Academic Wonderland.”  I couldn’t help but think about the “x” what it’s significance is to our community. By using the “x” are we really liberating our LBQTIA community members of the oppression the feel? Has the “x” served it’s purpose and do we now consider the issues revolving gender inclusiveness in our community resolved? I think a common theme that I resonated with through out Do and Deloso’s article was that we can’t leave it to the administration to help resolve the issues most prominent to our communities. Maybe the use of the “x” was just one of the ways administration has told us to resolve the issues. There’s nothing wrong with using the “x” but it becomes problematic when we think that a single letter can relieve the oppression our community members feel just because administration says it would. There’s no checklist to ensure our communities are issues are being resolved, and how can we leave it up to a panel of administrators to tell us what is best for our communities when they, themselves, don’t understand it? This article has reminded me that we can’t fix the issues of our community with a set of rules, it’s really up to us as student leaders to bring purpose to our actions and to be unafraid to voice that purpose to the administrators. As a leader in the Fil-Am, I can say that the “x” hasn’t done its job, and that its up to use student leaders to take the next step in pursuing the equality that our LGBQTIA members seek. 

Question: The work of student activism can be tiresome and futile, how can we ensure that we can retain our leaders to keep up with the fight and to continue pursuing the justice our communities deserve.

1.Đỗ, L. L & Deloso, S (n.d. ). Precariously Positioned: Asian American Women Students Negotiating Power in Academic Wonderland. Retried from Canvas downloaded pdf. May 20, 2017 

2.UC Davis Fil Am Logo. Digital image. Http://davisfilam.wixsite.com/2014. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 May 2017.