A History of Alienation

Dear Willow S. Lung-Amam,

In your book Trespassers? You describe the ways in which Asian American people have made their space in the American landscape. Yesterday, we discussed how history often rhymes with itself, and I found it interesting how the issues Asian immigrants face today parallel with the struggles of asian immigrants in the 1840's. As Asians immigrated to the coast in search of opportunity, they often took up menial labor that didn't compete with the white labor force. They attempted to appease and accommodate, but were faced with opposition. Discriminatory immigration laws and anti-foreigner sentiment contributed to the 'Yellow Peril'. Similarly, Asian Americans in Silicon Valley have attempted to "weave their dreams within the valleys existing special fabric", fitting in with the homogeneous white landscape. Just as Asian immigrants have been historically othered, newcomers to the valley have been categorized as "Abnormal, undesirable, or simply "out of place"", evidence of the state of perpetual foreignation. As a result they have been met with "skepticism, derision...[and] disdain". How do we combat this continued  alienation? 

Sincerely,

Sophie Devincenti 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to Discern a Race Issue?

Dear Claudia Rankine, I found your writing about Serena Williams to be particularly fascinating and it brings up a lot of questions about the current state of race in corporate America. I would be curious to hear your thoughts on a few things. I'm not sure if the officials in these games were confirmed to be racist in that sense, but if so that would affect the interpretation. If, for example, they have no known racist background, how do you tell if such an incident is inherently about race? You say that the ref didn't like seeing the black body on her court, but without evidence how can you in fact confirm such a thing? Not that I am questioning your assertions directly, but in what situations can you discern that actions are definitely a race issue? I know that there are plenty of situations in which refs have screwed over white men in sports, so I wonder as to how you can tell. Thanks, Vaughan Siker
Read more
Dear Willow S. Lung-Amam, I really loved your piece on the minority myth mostly due to my own experiences with this myth. Yes, we are expected to get amazing grades, be perfect in class, and do all things perfectly, and those expectations are good to some extent. But when these expectations become stereotypes and not parents' projected wishes upon their children, it becomes detrimental to all Asian Americans. I had to force myself to be the best in everything to further the stereotype of academic exceptionalism. This is exactly why I understand this notion is a myth because Asian Americans do receive privileges that other minority groups may not and and I enjoy certain benefits from being a "model minority," it's definitely detrimental in certain aspects for kids, not only a positive thing. In an ideal world, projecting no stereotypes onto a minority group is the best because less external pressures will affect development of the members of these races.
Read more
To the author of Trespassers?: Your account on the cultural background invoked us to talk about cultrual appropriation. For most of the time, people tend to generalize a single cultural phenomenon as to represent the whole set of cultural system. Usually, a person won't truly understand the internal reason of the existence of different rituals and customs, but they will still practice it fo various reasons, sometimes just for attention and profits. Your discussion in your book about the so-called "model minority" stereotype gave us an inspiration to talk about the occurrence of micro-offense. Due to the inability to fully comprehend a kind of culture, a person may make another person uncomfortable by asking questions that gives hint to all the traditional stereotypes, and the tricky thing is that only the one who's being asked have the power to judge and explain, but sometimes explanation just won't work very easily. Your book can be modified by adding in these el...
Read more