Week 8 - Tian Lan

Week 8

ASA 002

Section 001

The second article “What Asian Americans Are Bringing to Campus Movements for Racial Justice” written by Mark Tseng Putterman talks about that the Asian American students express their voice against racism, imperialism through supporting the anti-Black movement. They want to let the people think about Asian lives also matter from the black lives matter movement. The article also talks about the missing representation of Asian American in US university, such as lacking Asian American administrator in the university and Asian American study classes. In the end, the author talks about the challenges that unite all the Asian American group together since they consist of a very broad ethnic group including Eastern Asian, Southern Asian, and so on. In addition, their socioeconomic difference may also contribute to this challenge. [1]

I have rarely heard about Asian American student activism around US university. There are many factors that contribute to this phenomenon. First, I think Asian American is really a broad term that include a very diverse group of students. For example, the Chinese American will be very different from Vietnamese American or Korean American because of different cultural background. It’s very challenging to find the common ground for all these group on many different topics. It is very likely that one issue affect Chinese American significantly but has nothing to do with Korean American. Therefore, it is very hard to unite them together. On the other hand, the Asian culture also discourage Asian American students to defend their rights through a movement. For most of the Asian American student, their first priority is academic performance that their family values the most, so they pay less attention on the discriminations or unfair treatment from other student. Last but not least, Asian American students are not risk takers which is also a part of Asian cultures. Leading a movement at a university has possible potential damage to their academic career.

Question: 

Despite the factors I mentioned above, what other factors may discourage Asian American Activism? 

[2]

References:

1.     Putterman, Mark Tseng. “What Asian Americans Are Bringing to Campus Movements for Racial Justice.” Race Files, 27 Dec. 2016, www.racefiles.com/2016/02/01/what-asian-americans-are-bringing-to-campus-movements-for-racial-justice/.

2.      Http://reappropriate.co/2014/01/10-examples-of-aapis-rich-history-of-resistance/. (2014, January 15). Retrieved November 12, 2017, from http://reappropriate.co/2014/01/10-examples-of-aapis-rich-history-of-resistance/

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