Joseph Tiu ASA 002 A03 Week 4

       

        This week we had several readings, but I would like to focus on the study by Junn and Davis Cross on the statistics of Asian American women in higher education. As stated by the researchers, about “fifty-five percent of female and minority faculty were awarded tenure at USC” while a considerable ninety-two percent of white male faculty were also awarded tenure. Such a discrepancy and divide between the two groups is simply unacceptable and defies any notion of a meritocracy while showing evidence of bias and discrimination, even unconscious.

The idea that unconscious biases can affect even the discriminated populations may be baffling, but this agrees with the sentiment put forward in W.P.’s poem Who Killed Soek-Fang Sim. Initially, the author quietly accepts the negative things that she heard about Soek-Fang Sim without really looking any deeper and it is only after the fact that Soek-Fang Sim died that she noticed that these negative things were all false. Of course, one must ask themselves where this bias even came from? And how did it come to affect the author?

Well we see later in the notes that the ideas of her not being good enough, and to an extent other Asian Americans or minorities, came from her conversation with the provost of her university. “Don’t even think of comparing yourself to a white male colleague” he said, “you’re not good enough, simply not good enough” he added. This kind of humiliation and belittlement may have ingrained ideas that she is not good enough and would never be which may have influenced her ideas of Soek-Fang Sim. Through this, we notice how those in positions of power can influence our implicit biases and blind us from the underlying issues.

Perhaps what we are seeing is indeed a vocal, bigoted and powerful few influencing the minds of many? This would line up with the concept of social engineering presented and makes me wonder, how can we make sure we see these occurrences and make sure we don’t fall into the trap of discrimination?

 References:

Junn, J., & Davis Cross, M. K. (2019). Investigating Discrimination. Fight the Tower. United States: Rutgers University Press

W.P. (2019). Who Killed Soek-Fang Sim. In Fight the Tower. United States: Rutgers University Press

Stangor, C. (2011). ABC’s of Social Psychology [Online Image]. In Principles of Social Psychology. Boston, MA: FlatWorld