Matthew Ko A01 week 5

For this week's reading, I read a moving piece titled, " The cost of speaking," written by W.P. In her written text, W.P. utilizes her own experiences as a college professor to talk about the coast of speaking and standing up for one's self, as well as the cost of staying silent. In the beginning of the poem, WP describes how speaking up as a minority, particularly as an Asian American, will usually result in one being shunned, ignored,  and looked down upon. Reading this part outraged me because it implies how helpless Asian Americans are when they are in situations like W.P. Almost everyone is taught that if one face discrimination, the right thing for that individual to do is to speak up and everything will be fine. Nevertheless, if one still faces backlash from society, then there may be no other way for to stop the unfair treatment without getting the government involved. And such a thing had to happen in the case of W.P. where she had to bring in lawyers and agencies to fight for her. It is frustrating to me how such serious measures needed to be used in order to just have a chance in stopping hatred and bigotry because simply standing up for your rights is not enough. 

The second point W.P. makes is that Asians are stereotyped as being silent. They may be the model minority where they are accepted by society, but they are also expected to obey orders without talking back, remain silent, and to just work hard. Such stereotype has been around me throughout middle and high school. Throughout the 7 years, my schools had a yearbook at the end of every grade. And in that yearbook, they had a section where they name students who were most athletic, quiet, likely to be president, likely to be a movie star, etc. And for 6 out of the 7 years, I noticed that the "most quiet" student would always be Asian. I didn't notice how this was a bit racist, but looking back now, I realize how such prejudice even played a role in as early as middle school. One question that I have is why are Asians stereotyped to be quiet? Where did this stereotype come from? Who created it?  

References:

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.

Villanueva, Kristine (2018) "Asian Women, not the silent majority" [Photograph] Retrieved from

 https://medium.com/spaceshipmedia/asian-women-not-the-silent-majority-d97811a50d54