Week 8 - Angela Kang

Angela Kang

ASA 02- A02

Week 8

In this week’s reading, the article “ What Asian Americans are Bringing to Campus Movements for Racial Justice” by Mark Tseng Putterman stood out to me the most. According to the author, when people hear or see the words “people of color” they often don’t associate Asian Americans as being apart of it and only picture other races such as African Americans. Due to this reasoning, Asian Americans are left out in racial movements and seen as unimportant in making a difference within racism. While reading this article, I began to realize how Asian Americans involvement in racial movements are not really publicized and sometimes discouraged. Within the the article, the author mentions how Asian Americans are questioned whether or not their involvement is relevant and important. Although this is one of the issues as to why a lot of  Asian Americans are not involved with student activism, another issue is due to disinterest and the pressure of disappointing their parents. Compared to other ethnic groups, Asian American students are more focused on school and work instead of their involvements in organizations and movements. In order to fulfill their parents wishes of becoming successful, students wouldn’t want to risk joining a movement that might potentially interfere with their future. As I was reading this portion, I was able to relate as I was enforced with these ideas from my parents. I knew that if there were any student movements or protests on campus, I would not participate due to the reminder of what my parents used to tell me. In order for Asian American students to be more involved, the barriers of parents concerns and the judgement of other ethnic groups need to be broken. With more advocacy on Asian American student movements, it can increase our involvements and be acknowledged as being “people of color”.

Question: How can the model minority myth be broken in order for other ethnic groups to realize that Asian Americans also have a voice and an opinion?

References:

Putterman, M. T. (2016). What Asian Americans Are Bringing to Campus Movements for Racial Justice. Race Files. Retrieved November 12, 2017

[Digital Image]. (n.d). Retrieved November 12, 201, from http://www.awokenmagazine.com/2017/02/asian-americans-are-people-of-color.html