Ahmed Alhassan - A03 - Week 10

Upward and Onward: Asian American Women's Legal Resistance by Robyn Magalit Rodriguez explored the path towards creating change in our society and the important role Asian American studies play in this process. Robyn mentions academic elitism and how many academics look down upon political activism and see themselves as above it. The role academia plays in our society is important through many aspects, and Asian American studies shows that political activism is one way of educating the public about the world that they live in. Robyn describes these studies as understanding the structures we live in, studying them and teaching about them. I think the teaching about these structures and institutions is extremely important especially in academia. As we see a lot of people uneducated about the basics of how these structures are designed to hurt them, which has wide implications on how our society is shaped. Unfortunately, the lack of priority given to these programs in educational institutions can undermine the education that people receive and leads many to believe that it isn't an essential part of academic institutions. This could also be seen as a way of suppressing the sharing of ideas and an attempt to keep institutions safe from push-back and the sharing of ideas that may lead to resistance and protest.
Question: Is education in academic institutions the best way to convey these ideas and get through to people who are uninformed about societal issues?

References: Ratana, Calvin. “CSUs Need Ethnic Studies Program.” The Sundial, sundial.csun.edu/72115/opinions/csus-need-ethnic-studies-program/.