Week 1_Zijing Wu_A04

Week 1
Zijing Wu A04
913957457

I have to admit that the first intention for me to take this Asian American Study class was just to fulfill my GE requirement, but my attitude has changed dramatically after I met Professor Valverde and read her writing "Fight the Tower: A Call to Action for Women of Color in Academia". I always understand that our society isn't perfect and issues like discrimination against minorities exist, but I didn't know how severe the problem is until I read this article. Those social injustices and microaggressions could have killed two lives. That's how severe the problems are. What is more shocking to me is the place where all this happened. Universities are suppose to be the one place that everyone is treated equally. It should be the pure academic community that people are judged by their mind, not their race, color, and gender. Professor Valverde's writing uncovers the complete story about higher education. I understand that University is like a small society, but those social problems happening in the academic community is just unacceptable. In the lecture, the professor briefly mentioned that international students nowadays are basically just "Cash Cows" for Universities. I am an International student. My parents worked so hard to pay for my ridiculously high tuition, so I can have the "Best Education". I just have to ask myself this question repeatedly, Is our education system corrupt that everything is just about money now?

 The other section of the writing that makes me thinking is when the professor mentioned about her ADHD diagnosis. She talked about how she was treated differently by the department about her disability. I can connect to this part of the story because about 5 years ago when I was still in high school, I was diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder. When I informed my high school about this, the first thing they did is to question the credibility of  the information instead of offering any help for my mental health. So I had to go through everything to overcome this problem by myself. Because I have this similar experience, I totally understand that sometimes your mental disability can be judged by others.

Questions: What can we do to make educational industries pure again?



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,  2