Christine Lee - SS1 - Week 3

In this week’s reading, An Offering, it is about Huynh’s wounds, healing, and scaring process due to the academy being a place that impacts people’s health and well-being as an Asian American graduate student. She was one of the most outstanding doctoral students with well performed programs, first year review, teaching and research assistantship, and volunteered herself in opportunities. However, despite all that, she was mistreated by her department’s chair commenting of her acknowledgement of how the president fired a high ranking administrator on campus and she did not have a place to write and get involved in this matter. I was intrigued by how little help faculty was around her. No help from the department, feeling broken and drained obviously impacts someone's mood, lifestyle, and health. I can feel her pain through her descriptions of her experience and this just briefly reminded me when I first came into college how lost I was, which is hardly the comparison because I had the resources and knew how to find some answers. However, for Hyunh, it was difficult for her to find answers and write. Thus, she did one thing that was never recommended in a doctrine student was to move homes, considering that a distraction to their writing and work. Despite what others say, she moved homes and it slowly healed her wounds.

This reading relating to this week’s readings theme, is to stand strong in your ground. Even though Hyunh has being scarred, other writers talks about the possibilities and realities of leaving academia, and negotiating power in Academia. In Precariously Position, Deloso, talks about how an Asian American woman leader faces her fear speaking in front of hundreds of her peers and faculty to fight and protect the ethic students. Being an activist not only embraces your own culture but also know how to stand up for it and make change.

Question: How did Hyunh withstand all these health problems and still stay in such a toxic environment?

Sources:
Blackpepper. “‘Your Asian Wasn't Quiet’: Black, Brown, Yellow Alliances in America.” "Your Asian Wasn't Quiet": Black, Brown, Yellow Alliances in America, 1 Jan. 1970, tropicsofmeta.blogspot.com/2010/04/your-asian-wasnt-quiet-black-brown.html.