Mohinee Sharma A02 Week 2

In Professor Valverde's Fight the Tower Manifesto, she provides a summary of the basis of her book. It emphasizes how the Fight the Tower movement arose due to the treatment of women of color in Academia. Women of color, specifically Asian American women, are seen as easy targets for discrimination based on assumptions about their racial background, sex, culture, etc. Additionally, she mentions how there is an assumption that Asian American women remain silent and submissive to the power hierarchy.

This majorly relates to the state of our world today where Asian Americans are constantly being targeted due to an assumption that their race is connected to a deadly disease. Looking through the Fight the Tower Facebook page, there are a vast amount of articles that talk about instances where Asian Americans in higher education settings are being targeted. In the article, "The coronavirus is causing an outbreak in America -- of Anti-Asian racism," by Austa Somvichian-Clausen they discuss how an ASU student reported feeling as though there is a significant social and cultural divide that exists between international students in China and the rest of the student body. This is only one of the many examples that show the growing Anti-Asian racism around us.

Because of this, I feel that now more than ever it is necessary to pay attention to the themes brought up in Fight the Tower and think about how this movement can be applied to fight and resist Anti-Asian racism happening today.

Question: What can higher education institutions due to fight Anti-Asian racism today?

                                          Somvichian-Clausen (2020)

References

Somvichian-Clausen, A. (2020). The coronavirus is causing an outbreak in America-of anti-Asian racism. Retrieved from https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/diversity-inclusion/480749-the-coronavirus-is-causing-an-outbreak-in-anti