Week 9 - Marissa Gomez-Alforja A03

In "The 'Four Prisons' And The Movements of Liberation", Omatsu believes that there are four types of prisons that hold you back: your origin, the history of your origin, society's idea of social and class structure, and your own self. The author uses these to describe the Asian American liberation movements starting from the 1960s. Asian Americans, as you all know, have had an eventful history and have fought for what know as "freedom". The sad part it, a lot of these movements have been reinterpreted and sugar-coated. It is not surprising that as history gets passed down, a little bit gets lost in translation. One of the misconceptions about the Asian American movements was that young Asian Americans were taking the lead on campaigns and anti-war protests, when in reality, this movement brought Asian Americans of all ages together for this movement. Another misconception was that the main goal was to be legitimate and have accurate representation for Asian Americans, when the real main purpose was for liberation. Asian Americans did not just fight for their own, but for all other who were suppressed. This changed the course of our society and culture as we know it. There were common slogans like "serve the people" and "power to the people". I think it is important to keep these ideals alive and to stick together at this day and age. We are stronger as a group and we should stray away from the idea of grouping together different ethnicities.

References
Omatsu, G. (1994). The 'Four Prisons' And The Movements Of Liberation.
(n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.redspark.nu/en/imperialist-states/statement-from-red-guards-philadelphia-on-the-formation-of-serve-the-people-philly/.