This week, I read "Who killed Soek-Fang Sim?" by Wang Ping and its moving narrative spoke volumes to me. Soek-Fang Sim was a well-accomplished, award-winning scholar who was plagued with unjust criticism and racism until she passed away from breast cancer at age 35. The story of Soek-Fang Sim was brought to light by Wang Ping and her similar treatment by her colleagues and by her college. The phrase "not good enough" is constantly being used, especially towards women of color in higher education. It does not matter if these women are the most accomplished and published professor at their college because they are still deemed "not good enough" by their peers. So many Asian American women have faced discrimination in the workplace and have been denied the acknowledgment and respect that they deserve. I was outraged to hear that the provost told Wang Ping that she should not compare herself to her white male colleague. It is an ongoing battle for equality in the workplace just for women themselves, yet it is a war for Asian American women to receive the same recognition of excellence as their white colleagues.
My question is this: what does it say about our society for it to be normal for Asian Americans to internalize the discrimination they receive and actually start believing it?
References
Fight the Tower: Asian American Women Scholars' Resistance and Renewal in the Academy, by
Kieu-Linh Caroline Valverde and Wei Ming Dariotis, Rutgers University Press, 2020, pp. 77-82.
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