Xinyang Xu, A02, Week 2

After reading “Taking Action: Asian American Faculty against Injustices in the Academy” by Shirley Hune, I realized how serious the adverse situation Asian American faculty is facing in academia as well as the stereotypes they are facing. Specifically, stereotypes toward Asian American students are all misconception.

In Mother tongue by Amy Tan, an Asian American writer, she mentioned her experience of being steered away from writing by teacher, “And this makes me think that there are other Asian-American students whose English spoken in the home might also be described as “broken” or “limited.” And perhaps they also have teachers who are steering them away from writing and into math and science, which is what happened to me.” This is probably because stereotype hold by some teacher that Asian American should be good at math and science, instead of writing, a creative activity. That is totally not the truth.

As mentioned in the article, Asian American students are facing the problem that they are not receiving enough academic supports because of the stereotype that “Asians are doing great!” This is a misconception that I deeply disagree with. 

In fact, Asian Americans of all ethnicities encounter challenges in education. According to the data from ACE’s Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education report, “Although 73.2 percent of Korean Americans ages 18 to 24 are enrolled in college, only 44.3 percent of those with origins in the Philippines are. The data also highlight that 37 percent of Asian Americans who take the GED test do not pass.” All those stereotypes toward Asian American students deprived their opportunities to seek for help and their will to pursue dream.

Question: What are other stereotypes Asian American students are facing during their academia?

Reference:
Damuri. (2019, October 24). An Uneven Playing Field: The Complex Educational Experiences of Asian Americans. Retrieved from https://www.higheredtoday.org/2019/08/21/uneven-playing-field-complex-educational-experiences-asian-americans/

Mother Tongue, by Amy Tan - mother tongue. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.theessayexperiencefall2013.qwriting.qc.cuny.edu/files/2013/09/Mother-Tongue-by-Amy-Tan.pdf

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.