According to “Opening the Box: An
International Asian Woman Scholar’s Fight,” Akiko Takeyama describes how she
struggled with racial discrimination and structural inequality, winning the
battle for tenure. She encourages women of color in academia to break the
silence to reveal the structural issues existing in the education system and to
clarify Asian American women are not model minorities.
After reading this article, I realize that
international scholars, especially scholars of color, encounter numerous
obstacles, including language barriers, accent racism, and system inequalities.
Many Asian American professors had a similar experience as the author. When
students took the class taught by an Asian American professor, most of them
judge the professor through the first impression they received about the
professor. They may focus on the accent of the professor instead of the content
the professor explained. The material and the teaching style were not paid much
attention due to accent racism. People assume that Asian Americans are
incompetent, resulting in fewer opportunities for Asian American scholars to
speak up in the academic field, workplace, and society. The incentive for the
administration to hire Asian Americans is the label of “model minority,” which
makes racists easier to suppress Asian Americans. I appreciated that more and
more Asian women scholars like Takayama to stand out and share their valuable
experiences fighting against discrimination. Learning these experiences of
women enables women of color to feel that they are not alone and challenge
themselves to break the silence.
Picture source: http://waichingsthoughts81.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-model-minority-myth-13-reasons-why.html
Question: How can we solve the problem of
structural inequality?
Reference:
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
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