Week 9-Esther Perng A01

Both articles’ topics focused on Asian American activism and attitudes toward certain social and political ideologies. The different mentions of Asian American activism starting from the 1960s in “The ‘Four Prisons’ and the Movements of Liberation” shows that many Asian Americans have been politically active for a very long time, yet for some reason, we’re often viewed as being not politically involved or just simply indifferent towards our own issues and struggles. The reason might be because Asian Americans are often completely omitted from discussions of social and racial injustice, whether it is through media or conversations with other people, so other people continue to think that we don’t care about important issues or that we don’t have any issues that are “newsworthy” and this only perpetuates the model minority myth. Another unfortunate contribution is the idea of color-blindness in regards to racial inequality, mentioned in “Barack Obama as the post-racial candidate for a post-racial America: perspectives from Asian America and Hawai’i.” Not being talked about in topics of racial inequality only upholds the idea that some people “don’t see color” – that we are all one race, the “human race.” This is such a bullshit belief because the whole point is that we want them to see color and be able to recognize that color doesn’t dictate the level of basic human rights we receive, instead of claiming to be racially color-blind and acting like they can’t see us. 

Question: Now that more and more Asian American students are getting involved in social and political issues and sharing things online through social media, would it be more likely that this belief of political indifference in Asian Americans would stop?

References:

Hamill, M. (2015, March 10). Online and Offline Color-Blind Racism [Digital Image]. Retrieved March 3, 2019, from http://scalar.usc.edu/works/online-and-offline-color-blind-racism/media/satirical-cartoon

Okamura, J. Y. (2011). Barack Obama as the post-racial candidate for a post-racial America: Perspectives from Asian America and Hawai'i. Patterns of Prejudice, 45(1-2), 133-153. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0031322X.2011.563159

Omatsu, G. (2012). The 'four prisons' and the movements of liberation. The State of Asian America, 19-69.