Week 8 - Angie Zhang

Angie Zhang

Section A01

Week 8

The article “What Asian Americans Are Bringing to Campus Movements for Racial Justice” by Mark Tseng Putterman mentions the idea that people seem to pay less attention to the political movements that Asian Americans are active in. Many people tend to assume that Asian Americans are not very involved in political movements because they don’t typically see them speak up about many current issues. However, there are various reasons as to why some Asian Americans don’t participate in such campaigns. As mentioned in the article, Asian Americans may be uninterested in issues such as police brutality because they do not feel as though they are as affected by that particular issue. Others don’t want to speak up in fear of losing their jobs and disappointing their parents. However, the article also mentions that Asian Americans are indeed involved in movements for racial justice, such as protesting and petitioning for new courses in Asian American Studies and supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. This article also mentions that racial discrimination against Asian Americans is often overlooked by bigger issues, such as other movements for people of color. When people think about racial discrimination, they typically picture the Black Lives Matter movement, while racial discrimination against Asian Americans is not in the picture. I feel as though I can closely relate to this as I had witnessed many instances of discrimination against Asian American students in high school by non-Asians, such as mocking them for their good grades. Yet, I still don’t notice it in the media. Thus, I also feel as though racial discrimination against Asian Americans should be brought into light, as well as the fact that Asian Americans are indeed involved in political movements.

Question:

How can we spread the word on the racial discrimination that Asian Americans face every day? How can the media help shed light to the Asian American organized political movements, and how can we encourage more Asian Americans to speak up about such matters?

References:

Putterman, M. T. (2016). Race Files. What Asian Americans Are Bringing to Campus Movements for Racial Justice. Retrieved November 10, 2017.

Why and How Asian Americans Must Mobilize for Black Lives. (n.d.). [Digital Image]. Retrieved November 10, 2017 from http://reappropriate.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/asians4blacklives.jpg