Week 8 - Jamie McCaa

Jamie McCaa

ASA 002 Section A03
Week 8

I felt that I could relate to a lot of what Mark Tseng Putterman’s article “What Asian Americans are Bringing to Campus Movements for Racial Justice” was trying to say. He summarizes a few specific examples of Asian Americans participating in college campus anti-racism and Black Lives Matter movements (at campuses such as Yale and Breis), but also goes into detail about how “solidarity” is negotiated, and what factors keep Asian Americans from participating fully in these campus movements. Growing up in a predominantly white neighborhood, Putterman’s mention of Asian Americans who do not get involved because they feel issues do not affect them, or that they have internalized racism that prevents them from being in solidarity with other Asian Americans, is definitely something that I've encountered in my own personal experience. Many of the Asian Americans who lived in my predominantly white town were often vocally anti-black, would use anti-black slurs as jokes, and did not see a point in combating racism – and when they did, the same question of “what about us” kept them from forming alliances with groups outside their own. So, I agreed immensely with Putterman bringing up Asian American Youtubers giving anti-black messages to their Asian American audiences as a way to show how anti-blackness persists in Asian American communities - as many of the kids I grew up with also enjoyed videos by such Youtubers. 

Additionally, I also thought that the author’s mention of how Asian Americans have a lack of political leaders to look up to was particularly true – I would argue that the erasure of Asian Americans from historical recording of political uprising is deliberate. Ever since I started taking Asian American studies classes, which eventually led to me declaring a major in it, I’ve learned so much about the political activism Asian Americans have always been a part of, and that Asian Americans aren’t only the politically neutral image that has been thrusted upon us. I felt that this article illuminated the current levels of political activity in Asian American groups, mirroring the Asian American political coalitions of the past, while also not denying the apathy that does exist within some parts of the community.

Question: Rather than just at the individual and family level, what else do Asian Americans need to do in order to combat anti-blackness?

References:

Putterman, M.T. (2016). What Asian Americans Are Bringing To Campus Movements for Racial Justice. Race Files. 

(n.d.) [digital image]. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-truong/yellow-peril-supports-bla_b_7781586.html