Week 1_Julia Wells_Section 4

I felt shocked and utterly speechless when I read Fight the Tower, but I was also slightly confused at first when I started to read this journal entry. I was confused because I was unsure about how this journal entry related back to Asian American studies. At first, it sounded like a sexist problem, and not particularly a race problem, but as I kept reading it was evident that more than sexism and even racism were the problems. This reading also emphasized that no matter what problem anyone is facing, they are never alone. It is a powerful message that many people cannot understand. Someone in the past, present, or even future experienced or will experience the same problem.

The first and second day of lecture lead into the beginning of all these problems and it started off with specifically looking into the Asian American Culture and how it came to be and how we, as Americans, classify race and look at race and ethnicity from a political power struggle.

I believe that we were meant to read, Fight the Tower, before lecture in order to gain a personal perspective of discrimination and unfair bias at a university. A university is supposed to be an educational building where people can academically and personally succeed whether it be students or faculty, but clearly proving that this is not the case, in this story, demonstrates the challenges that Asian Americans must face and overcome. This reading also leads into the power struggle of higher-ups versus the victim and supporters.

In lecture and in Fight the Tower, Professor Valverde spoke about how there are problems within the same racial community. This reminded me of how Christianity merged off into different practices. Problems arise within a community because of all the different opinions and different values of the same issue. 

A problem within the same cultural community, such as Asian Americans, would be an identity crisis. Identifying as a race, color, or ethnicity poses a problem because of the biology aspect of race and the lifestyle that someone grew up in. In week one lecture, as we were breaking down the meaning of race and ethnicity, where does nationality fall? Is it intertwined with ethnicity in some way? 

Citations: 

-Valverde, K. L. C. (2013). Fight the Tower: A Call to Action for Women of Color in Academia. Seattle J. Soc. Just., 12, 367.

-Valverde, K. L. C. (2019). Lecture 1 and 2

-Ethnicity vs. Nationality vs. Race vs. Heritage vs. Culture (2018, November 04). Retrieved from https://djaunter.com/enrich/