Week 8 - Katrina Estrella

Katrina Estrella

Section A03

Week 8

In the article “What Asian Americans Are Bringing to Campus Movements for Racial Justice,” Mark Tseng Putterman outlines the unique struggles that Asian American college students face; how do we participate in protests and make our own struggles known without seeming to eclipse others’ voices? We are what is known as a model minority. Instead of being negatively stereotyped, we tend to be overestimated. Sure, there are Asian Americans with perfect test scores and straight A’s, but that isn’t all we are. This stereotype only provokes a culture of stress and forced perfection. However when we try to speak about this, we are often silenced by other movements for complaining about something that they don’t see as harmful as their own struggles. This is even more prevalent now due to the Black Lives Matter movement; rather than shifting to look at the broad spectrum of issues all people of color face, the media has been focusing more on the challenges that African Americans encounter. After reading this article, I believe that people of color need to stand together for each and every one of our struggles that we face, and not be divided by things such as “Asian privilege” and “anti-blackness”.  

As a Filipino American, I’ve had a markedly different experience. Because I am of Southeast Asian descent, I don’t quite fit the “perfect Asian student” image most people tend to have, but I’m still expected to excel from my own family. Over the course of my academic career, this has caused me incredible amounts of stress as I try to live up to these expectations, which I have also internalized. The amount of pressure I’ve had isn’t close to that which some of my friends and classmates have had to deal with, but it was almost unbearable at times. In the end, any stereotype, even a “positive” one like the model minority, only ends up hurting the entire community.

Question: Where do we begin to change or disassemble this model minority myth that is so internalized and integrated into our culture?

 

References:

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

UC Berkeley TWLF Solidarity Newsprint 03/1969 [Digital image]. (2008, January 10). Retrieved from http://aam1968.blogspot.com/2008/01/uc-berkeley-twlf-solidarity-newsprint.html