Week 8- Brian Dang

Brian Dang
11/12/17
Section A01

I once asked Professor Valverde after class why the model minority myth was started in the first place. She told me that it was because those in charge feared minorities coming together and figuring out what they are actually missing out on. To avoid this they made certain minorities, such as Japanese Americans, the model minority and put them above the other minorities so that they would feel superior and not associate with other minorities. This has worked as I, an Asian American, have no issues with the social standing of my race and have very little interest in the issues of other races. This class and Mark Tseng Putterman's article has opened up my eyes to how I can see the issues of my race in perspective with the issues of other races though. What I learned from this article was that you should be able to recognize your own race's issues, but that doesn't mean you should shun another races issues. This is seen in the article by how Tim Tai was unwanted at a Black protest, or how Youtubers such as Ryan Higa made fun of the Black Lives Matter movement. Stuff like this is making solidarity much harder to achieve. Interviewees from the article talk about this and talk about how they understand that Blacks are more marginalized and that they should help them with their movement. This empowered both movements as ideas and understanding were spread and more support was garnered for both groups.

This isn't and issue about just race movements and protests, but just movements like this in general. I don't participate in anything like this, so I don't have very much evidence to support this claim, but many movements like these seem to be very noninclusive and overly defensive. From seeing videos on social media and youtube, it seems like many of these movements have fanatics that will openly shun and attack those that don't fall into their movement or have differing ideas. It leaves a stigma against protesting in general. It's one of the major reasons, alongside my apathy, that I don't participate in protests. I feel like I'll be attacked if I try to associate with groups like that. Currently to me it seems like there is a culture of separation, not solidarity.

So my question is, how can we shift this culture away from separation, but solidarity?



References
Putterman, M. T. (2016). Race Files. What Asian Americans Are Bringing to Campus Movements for Racial Justice. Retrieved November 12, 2017.
[Digital image]. (n.d.). Retrieved November 12, 2017, from http://reappropriate.co/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/asian-solidarity-ferguson.jpg