Week 1: Kelin Tham-Graul A03

In “Fight the Tower: A Call to Action for Women of Color in Academia,” Kieu-Linh Caroline Valverde reveals the injustice that she and many other women of color face in academia. It’s definitely true that women of color are often presumed incompetent, forcing them to exert extra effort to combat others’ predispositions. Often, they are also denied the same recognition as their more privileged colleagues. Reading this reminded me of how throughout history, female scientists such as Margaret Hamilton and Rosalind Franklin have had their achievements overlooked, and female scientists of color such as Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson have faced even more erasure because of both gender and racial discrimination. Taking into consideration the UC Davis pepper spray incident, which illustrates how those in power discourage dissent, Valverde’s unfair and wrongful experience is further proof of corruption and injustice in the “ivory tower,” challenging readers to question their views of academia. Although education ostensibly serves purposes such as advancing the pursuit of knowledge and promoting novel thinking, which should create positive change in our society, it often reinforces society’s power structures. In retrospect, this is not surprising; many elite colleges, for example, are historically associated with affluent white families and currently still have few middle- and lower-class students. I also found this reading to be very telling about how the effects of racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination are ubiquitous in many aspects of people’s lives and thus have become unfortunately normalized and accepted in our society. Because many biases are subconscious, it can be difficult to convince someone that they are being discriminatory and have them reform their views. Many people in positions of privilege, such as white Americans, ignorantly dismiss complaints of discrimination by claiming that people who speak out against racism are “making everything about race,” (or gender, or social class, or another identity) or that they are “playing the race card” for self-benefit. Because of societal programming, even marginalized individuals must actively avoid internalizing the prejudice that they face. I agree with Valverde’s call to action; although society may press marginalized people to passively accept less than what they deserve, it is important that we stand up and speak out against this injustice. Discrimination is by no means “over,” nor has it faded into only a minor issue, and it continues to cost people their livelihoods and lives. We still have a lot of work to do to combat prejudice.

Question: How does workplace discrimination manifest differently in different fields? Does the type of work environment affect how we should approach these issues?

References:

Valverde, K., (2013) “Fight the Tower”: A Call to Action for Women in Academia, 12(2), 367-419. Retrieved October 1, 2017.

Cornwell, P. (2017, January 04). Activist Al Sugiyama, who empowered Seattles Asian-American community, dies at 67. Retrieved October 01, 2017, from https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/obituaries/activist-al-sugiyama-who-empowered-seattles-asian-american-community-dies-at-67/