Week 10_Annalisa Dailo_A02

As the quarter comes to an end, we are left with our final reading, a good note as to ending this course for all of us to reevaluate upon. In this week's reading, it discusses what it means to be woke and to stay woke. The reading describes this as to actually see what is going on behind what seems to be good. There are many different forces that take advantage of the "little guy" for their own benefit. For example, politicians lie to their fellow audience for votes in hopes of gaining more power; like that, we face oppression in academia as well.

After being in this course, I feel that it is necessary to look at the root of all of these things. Although the educational system is making it seem that all of these things are necessary to learn about, it's all under a economically greedy system. When I was in AP U.S. History in high school, we had a huge textbook of essential parts in U.S. history; however, it wasn't until we started learning about the Cold War when I started to see the flaws in the textbook. Even though, yes it is a part of history, there were certain accounts that were left out, making it seem that the U.S.'s values are above everything else and that the reasons are justifiable. There was a lack of personal accounts from the other side-- making the whole text totally one-sided and having this is to make us believe that this is the correct system and no one else's. 

Another key point to add on along with this is the mention of oppression towards Asian American women. In many cultures, it has been taught to value the community above yourself; this is patriarchal oppression that many of women have faced into silence. Like the culture view, it is still seen here in the US, where the US system is the patriarchal oppression that people face.This then goes back to the fact that once we do recognize this pattern, it is then where we would need to be "woke"-- to let our voices be heard rather than being in a shadow of silence.

Question: How can "woke" be brought back into an academic sense, or how can it be correctly taught to people how are abusing the term?

References:

Valverde, C. Academics Awaken: Power Resistance, and Being Woke

Photo Retrieved:

http://emclaytonlaw.com/2016/01/minority-shareholder-oppression-rights-and-remedies/