Week 1_Nghi Phan_A03

This week's lectures and reading Fight The Tower: A Call to Action for Women of Color in Academia makes me see the education system differently. Through Kieu Linh Caroline Valverde's claim about the failure of academia, I gradually understand why Professor Caroline Valverde showed the pepper spray incident and provide the readings before lecture. Through my perspective, the pepper spray incident portrays the abusive power of the police to the students and the reading shows that even as adults, you still get discriminated against. Both demonstrate to me that the authority who has the power, use it to bring others down. Like in our education system, I feel like some universities are hiring business people and not the ambitious teachers who love to guide students to their bright future. For example, through the pepper spray incident, the chancellor sided with the police and bribed students to make them quiet. This shows that our education system is gradually getting corrupted, filled with business people who corporate with each other. I realized why Professor Caroline Valverde said that some school systems even accepted some international students even if they have low scores. The reason is simple, money. Likewise, according to Caroline Valverde, Jason Del Gandio claimed that “Such corporatization transforms students into customers, teachers into workers, administrators into CEOs and campuses into market populations." I always thought what does this has to do with Asian American. However, from reading this, women of color are struggling to get a job in the field of academia is more than just race, disability, status, but including the corrupted people in the education system.

Question: Are we going to make a progress regarding equality and fairness? Or do we have to wait until we're extinct to see the result?



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