One of the few things that annoy me about UAAO's website is our "past activism" section, which ended in 2003, with the establishment of the Asian/Pacific Islander American minor. So... is that it? What happened when I got to college in 2004? For someone who wasn't involved at all until the second year of college, I've always wanted to find out what happened between 2004 and 2005. But what about for people who came after me? The history I know in 2005, 2006, and 2007, will be lost without some sort of documentation.
Aside from documenting major actions in the community, the blog will also serve as a forum for issue and current event-based discussions. We could've simply send out a "UAAO Current Event" email to our listserv, and you could choose to either read through the whole thing or delete it upon the email's arrival, but we feel the content of those emails deserves more than just a glance. Think about it this way, if someone asks me what is my vision for UAAO, for the Asian American community in Michigan, or for the whole Asian America, would I be able to answer those questions in one glance? Certainly not.
UAAO board members will be posting regularly, but we definitely welcome any submissions and suggestions for the blog. Someone mentions that posting our weekly meeting's topic would be helpful, and we'll try our best to do that. Please email us at uaao.board@umich.edu if you'd like to submit a post or have questions about us.
A new post will be up soon!
C.C.
UAAO Co-chair 2007-2008
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3 comments:
CC. u should allow people/ non board members to blog here.
Hey UAAO,
Definitely like the blog structure, rolling with the times, and wish you the best of luck with it. I hope you can keep everyone up-to-date with A/PIA issues using this format. I'm a blog newbie, but I definitely think you should take calvin's suggestion into consideration. If you can have a separate section where advocates can blog that'll be excellent.
One of the things that I’ve discovered is that I’ve always been part of a minority. Whether it’s in terms of ethnic differences or social class, I have always sided with the smaller group. Growing up in a foreign country I was considered a minority, part of the upper class, speaking a different language, sharing different values. Coming to college in the United States, I’ve identified with another minority, one that’s split among ethnic lines, and is traditionally seen as affluent.
Most people think that being an Asian-American subjects you to very different terms to other minorities but it really doesn’t. We have shared the same struggles, fought our same battles and managed to come up on top. But there is still a large proportion of Asians who continue to be discriminated against, and do not have the same capacity to advance. These are the people who need help the most but are denied assistance as they are not referred to as an “under-represented minority”. A concrete example of this would be the University of Michigan. Up until 1999, the University of Michigan admitted students based on a point system. You would receive certain points for having a SAT score of above 1500. Again, you would receive certain points for a high GPA. Instate students would have more points than out of state students and athletes would have higher points than non-athletes. The important thing to note though is that African American students received extra points, along with Hispanics and Native Americans but Asian Americans were not granted points. It is implied here that Asians come from a typically more affluent background and should be pitted against the same standards as Caucasian students. This is clearly not true as Asians face more difficult struggles than a white policy maker in East Lansing could ever understand.
It’s interesting to see that as Asian Americans we have sided with voting “No” on Prop. 2 two years ago. Prop 2. Effectively banned affirmative action, something which although doesn’t help Asian Americans, but continued to pass due to an overwhelming white majority voting in what they think to be their best interests. They could care less about minorities receiving equal rights, despite 200 years of slavery and oppression has given them a head start. But what is really baffling is the fact that Asian-Americans predominantly voted No on 2, even though it was not in their best interests. This clearly signaled the fact that as minorities ourselves, we side with minorities, we understand their struggles, and we want to promote equity. To the general public this seems to be “a side issue”. Asian Americans are not traditionally seen as aggressive people, we are considered quiet, passive, defensive, hardworking and bad drivers. But just because we do not voice ourselves in a Malcolm X style does not mean we do not care about our rights and promoting equality.
It’s always difficult identifying with a minority group. This is closely related to Harro’s views of oppression. He addresses that humans are different by nature, and that we belong to a certain set of social identities. These social identities help people to single you out. Its innate human differences, we see things that are different. Being associated with a model minority group, you’d think it’s a lot better, but it’s still difficult. People hate minorities when they are being seen as unproductive, or lazy, but they also hate them for being smart, stealing “their jobs” and taking up university admissions spaces. I’m pretty sure I can find a whole bunch of disgruntled Caucasian students in California who blame Asians for taking up 60% of the public university systems. But this is the sad truth, Caucasians who are still the majority vote; feel it’s unfair that blacks and Hispanics are given priority in university admissions, so they pass a resolution where people compete on a free level, only to find that their race isn’t dominant when it comes to multiple choice exams. Maybe they will pass a resolution where Asians are given a quota, and blacks/ Hispanics are not given special preferences. They are after all, the ruling majority. Johnson addresses many of these problems, but he talks about them in isolated terms. He discusses them thinking that sexism, privilege, racism are separate entities. Things which we should not be talking about because we can’t do anything about them, I disagree in the sense that we should acknowledge these differences, and we should have them understood and we should try to break these stereotypes. As a kid, you never really acknowledge these differences, but as you grow older, you feel these differences a lot more, and acknowledging them, is ever more important.
The biggest –ism struggle I have is the Asian American –ism struggle. Really, by nature I am an American citizen, but I feel as if in no way I should be labeled with American after Asian. I did not grow up here, and my service to “my country” has been limited. This is something I hope to continue to learn from other students in the dialogue and at this university. Harro discusses this in his institutional and cultural socialization aspects. It’s interesting to see that differences in society are created, learnt and tend to stay.
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