Week 1 - Angela Alejandro - A04

In an idealistic world, if you work hard, upward social mobility should be obtainable. However, as reality shows, different factors such as race and gender can hinder a person’s venture. This is illustrated in “Fight the Tower: A Call to Action for Women of Color in Academia” by Kieu-Lihn Caroline Valverde. The author relates that even though she was more accomplished than those in her rank, she was still denied tenure. This form of aggression towards Asian American women is unfortunately common among those in the academic field. As we discussed in lecture, even students face certain prejudices due to their ethnicity, whether it be macroaggressions such as being stereotyped into being a docile cliche, or microaggressions like being constantly interrupted or underestimated. Valverde also faced bullying within the Asian American department during her tenure appeal process. This shows that even though society places an emphasis in racial communities, that doesn’t mean that support and harmony are guaranteed. The label of “Asian” encompasses a large variety of geopolitical groups, and because of the historical use of race as a form of hegemony, these different groups were arbitrarily grouped together, thereby marginalizing the discrepancies and experiences of these people. In class, Dr. Valverde had the students rank the Asian countries in terms of dominance. This was done not to reinforce the hierarchy, but to show that this order somehow embedded itself into our daily lives. Facts like this make it difficult to answer the question “What are Asian Americans?” since there is not one true experience of being Asian American that can accommodate the differing lives of those in the country. Despite this, many who are perceived to be Asian American, especially women, face constant injustices that are systematically used to discourage their success. My question is, with the racial hierarchy so heavily embedded in our lives, what steps can we take to ensure that discrimination and injustices are properly addressed.

References:

• Valverde, Kieu-Linh Caroline (2013) "Fight the Tower: A Call to Action for Women of Color in Academia," Seattle Journal for Social Justice: Vol. 12 : Iss. 2 , Article 5. 
• Photo: Walton, Jessica (2014) Retrieved from theconversation.com