Women of color, in any career, experience discrimination of at least some sort. In Fight the Tower: A Call to Action for Women of Color in Academia, Kieu-Linh Caroline Valverde describes her experiences as a woman of color in Academia that led her long and challenging transformation from a confident scholar to a strong and determined fighter who believes in striving for rights. Her experiences support the ideas that people should think smarter, not harder and that growth never stops. After her near-death experience, strength and determination sparked inside of her, leading her to push herself to create alliances with her peers in order to achieve a common goal. Some issues in academia are that administrators are hired without having a background in education, which results in them making decisions without considering the faculty’s or students’ interests, instead, they look at the business side of things. She explains the concept of a "cracked pipeline" that describes the trajectory that only a fraction of the women who earn degrees hold tenured positions or have full professorships. In addition, some women of color who enter the academe end up leaving their institution or leaving altogether due to discrimination and unfair circumstances, known as "academic bully culture".
A theme of this week was regarding the concept of Asian Americans and how they are defined. Valverde's article relates to the theme because just like how Asian Americans have worked together in the past to achieve a common goal, Valverde and her peers worked together to fight for their rights.
Question: Why is it that most admistrators without a background in education are hired? If women of color in academia are discriminated in such ways, like Valverde was, do you think women of color in other careers are treated the same, worse, or better, depending on their careers?
References: Kieu-Linh Caroline Valverde. “Fight the Tower: A Call to Action for Women of Color in Academia.”
Pham, H., & Pham, K. (2010, February 8). [Cha Lua Gio Song Vietnamese Ham]. Retrieved January 11, 2019, from http://www.theravenouscouple.com/2010/02/cha-lua-vietnamese-ham-recipe.html
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