Bowen Xu, A04, Week2

Bowen Xu
ASA 002 A04
Blog of Week 2

Racism and Social Level

When I read Fight the Tower(2020), it was like being led into a unique history. There is no doubt that the author has profound research and experience on the impact and status of Asian American in the United States. As an East Asian student who also received American higher education, I learned about the historical origins of many Asian ancestors, and also was shocked by many unheard of negative encounters and stories. In the process of my inquiry, I noticed an interesting phenomenon, that is, the effect of class classification on prejudice between races. Valverde, the author of this article, mentioned that "Asian Americans (sub) consciously know that there exists a hierarchy of power based on ethnic make-up." Sounds magical realism, doesn't it? I thought that Americans' prejudice against Asians is inherent, which depends on the conflict between Western culture and traditional oriental culture, and also on the inherent biological exclusion of races. However, I never imagined that class factors have always played an important role. The author mentioned that the contributions and existence of different races in society are the reasons for their secondary status. In addition, the situations faced by different ethnic minorities such as out-of-school and unemployment also have a great relationship with the class represented by their group. For people in lower classes, these seem to be taken for granted.

In my opinion, this is another level of discrimination. Discrimination between races Despite the ugly situation in human society, the acquired social factor of class makes me even more ashamed. It turned out that the rejection of foreign races can also change as their status rises. And those who are still struggling for life at the bottom are always labeled as good people and insignificant, and become victims. What we treat equally is not only race, but also different classes. People ’s attitude towards outsiders should be equal even if they cannot be friendly, not based on what kind of resources and wealth they can bring to you.

Question: How can we do to decrease the discrimination via early education?

Reference

Valverde, K.-L. C., & Dariotis, W. M. (2020). Fight the tower: Asian American women scholars resistance and renewal in the academy. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.