Boya Di, ASA002 A03, Week 5,

Boya Di
Section: A03
Week 5 Blog

This week's reading material, "Precariously Positioned: Asian American Women Students' Negotiating Power in Academia" by Shannon Deloso, claims that Asian-American women students are always quiet and passive in the university. Moreover, it states that when they face unfairness, they should stand out to protect their rights. 

In this article, the author told us a story about how she becomes an “activist student”. At the beginning, the administration department of her university wanted to cut down the budget of College of Ethnic Studies. Actually, the fund of her college was not enough for research and study. If the administration department of the university cut down budget, it will influence the students of the College of Ethnic Studies, and they could not keep pace with the normal study schedule. Hence, Deloso realized that she could not be silent anymore. She should use her “power” to protect her college and the community she lives in. They stage a hunger strike at length, and on the tenth day, they won. For this movement, she knows that when people gather together to do one thing, they will have persuasive power. 

In the university, there are some stereotypes for Asian-American women students, such as shy, quiet, and lovely. Theses adjectives are not derogatory, but when these symbols always adhere to Asian-American women, they will think that they do like this and forget to revolt. They flatly receive all the results, whatever good or whatever they are. Therefore, they need one person to “awake” them and tell them to use their power to fight against inequality. Do not sit here and just wait for results because one student's power is limited, but one hundred and one thousand students' power is forceful. All the Asian-American women students should be united to change their attitudes towards unfairness. Besides, as a student at the university, we should care more about our study. When university has some decisions which are not beneficial to our study, we should stand out against them, not only for Asian-American women students but also for all students in university who are treated unfairly.

Question: What difference between a student activist and an activist student?

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. 

24th, Active Minds Staff March, et al. “The Power of the Student Voice.” Active Minds, 7 Nov. 2018, www.activeminds.org/blog/the-power-of-the-student-voice/.