Gabriel Yap ASA002 A02 Week 3

Gabriel Yap
ASA002 A02
Week 3

In the introduction for Fight the Tower, "The Time to Fight Is Now": Asian American Woman, Academia's Socially Engineered "Privileged Oppressed," Go Rogue" the author goes over the term "social engineering" and how it affects Asian American women. Social engineering is the manipulation of a population in order to control behaviors that are not innate in one's culture. This manipulation can be used to shape and control behavior, influence ideas, or oppress certain groups. In this case, social engineering is used to oppress Asian American women in academia.

The way how they are oppressed may not be so obvious. After all, it may seem like Asian American women are among the most educated people in academia. This is because they are in the group the article defines as the "privileged oppressed". Asian American women are seen as the "model minority", which may lead people to believe that they are privileged. They are what society wants minorities to be. But this is exactly how they are oppressed. They are expected to remain silent and be fed whatever society tells them their role should be. They become a disposable group of people that are only the model minority if they continue to remain silent.

I can see how this idea ties into the upbringing of many Asian American kids. We are expected by our parents to remain silent and listen to what they say. We are expected to have the same goals as they have for us. Only then would we be considered a good child. 



Source:
Valverde, K.L.C. (2019). Fight the Tower: Introduction. “The Time to Fight Is Now”: Asian American Women, Academia’s Socially Engineered “Privileged Oppressed,” Go Rogue. Rutgers University Press.
Image From: https://tallypress.com/fun/typical-mindsets-of-asian-parents/