Week 8 - Kaitlin Zheng

Kaitlin Zheng

Section A03

Week 8

In the article “What Asian Americans Are Bringing to Campus Movements for Racial Justice,” it discusses the position of Asian Americans with social injustice. While many perceive Asian Americans to be apathetic of the racial injustices that exist and turn their eyes from the issues, the truth is that Asian American student movement does exist and they are moving to act alongside their African American peers and shedding light to their struggles with higher education. While they do advocate strongly for equal rights and treatment, Asian Americans face a lack of community and inclusiveness in the student body and education. While they make up a chunk of the student body, students feel underrepresented and ethnic groups compensate for the lack of inclusion on campus. Therefore, adding to the perception that Asian Americans are indifferent to to taking part in racial movements. Personally, I have not seen too much of Asian Americans taking a stand against oppression and being involved in leading movements. However, I hope to see more of voicing our dissatisfaction with the system in place in the future. A reason for a lack of involvement is the fact that Asian students are brought up learning that they must focus on their studies in order to succeed and get a high-paying job. I feel that this is true because personally I never felt a strong motivation to become more knowledgable of social justice movements such as the Black Lives Matter movement. The lack of motivation lies with the fact that I was always taught to mind focus on myself and even though there are issues that I clearly stand by, I do not actively advocate or fight for them. I hope to change this reality by educating myself with the movements I support in order to join with other people of color and fight for equality and rights. I believe that a larger mindset revolution within the Asian community must be put in place to make a bigger change and therefore more Asian Americans would become more empowered to make differences with student movements.

Question: How can the implications of Asian Americans needing to justify their belongingness with social justice movements be dispelled?

References:

1. Putterman, M. P. (2016, February 1). What Asian Americans are Bringing to th. Race Files. Retrieved November 10, 2016, from https://www.racefiles.com/2016/02/01/what-asian-americans-are-bringing-to-campus-movements-for-racial-justice/

2. Unknown. [Digital Image] Retrieved November 12, 2017 from http://basicsnews.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/yellow-peril-Black-Power-sign.jpg