Mattia Sayson ASA 002 A02 Week 3

   I found this week's reading particularly interesting because it introduced me to the concept of  social engineering. When I was in high school, I was part of a 4 year engineering program and the entire time I always believed that engineering solely revolved around objects and materials. In "The Time to Fight is Now: Asian American Women, Academia's Socially Engineered "Privileged Oppressed," Go Rogue," the idea of social engineering was defined as " intellectual, physical,and psychological manipulation of populations involving centralized planning and modification of the environment in order to shape and control behaviors and ideas that do not exist inherently or naturally within individuals or cultures. Reading this made me reevaluate what I considered normal in our society as it opened my eyes to the fact that standards and ideas could be forms of internalized oppression that has become normalized from media and pop culture. I was really drawn to the statement, "We do not aim to dismantle institutions like academia to only learn how to replicate detrimental models that have served to destroy society and people. We dismantle to build tools for change, healing, and knowledge." because it shows the goals of those who are seeking to challenge these false standards of society. They are not the enemy, trying to destroy or disrupt; the structure was weak and unstable from the start, these people are trying to show what people think is already fixed is actually broken.
     Another phrase I was intrigued by was privileged oppressed. Because of how society portrays Asian Americans as the "model minority," it seems as if they are higher up the totem pole and that they do not face as much discrimination; however, this extra "privilege" only gives those in power this idea that they can still step all over them. Like what the article, " 'Model Minority' Myth Again Used As A Racial Wedge Between Asians And Blacks" touches upon, this idea creates a schism between two races that are essentially on the same side. This concept separates communities that could solidarity with one another as they battle bigotry and racism in many forms. While groups shouldn't be generalized and compared side-by-side for their struggles, the idea of "model minority" is unnecessary and just adds to another stereotype of an Asian American. How does the pandemic of covid-19 change this perspective? Are Asian Americans now mistreated because of a different stereotype of being "foreign" and "dirty"? When will society choose to accept people of color for who they are and not by the the social constructs that continues to persist through the decades?



References

Chow, Kat. “'Model Minority' Myth Again Used As A Racial Wedge Between Asians And Blacks.” NPR, NPR, 19 Apr. 2017, www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/04/19/524571669/model-minority-myth-again-used-as-a-racial-wedge-between-asians-and-blacks.

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.

Image: https://www.colorlines.com/articles/asian-americans-respond-pew-were-not-your-model-minority